The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and the Congress threw themselves into a blame game marked by recriminatory bickering in the aftermath of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) vault to victory in the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and [CPI(M) State secretary M. V. Govindan sought to punch holes in the Congress claim to political primacy in the anti-Sangh Parivar INDIA Bloc by attributing the party’s debacle in the Hindi heartlands to its “delusive go-it-alone electoral strategy, soft-Hindutva line and a noticeable lack of political messaging on livelihood issues.”
The Congress struck back by accusing the CPI(M) in Kerala of prosecuting a fault-finding campaign against the party to advantage the BJP nationally in the Lok Sabha polls.
A preliminary post-poll analysis by the CPI(M) led by Mr. Govindan on Monday felt that the Congress had dealt a blow to the INDIA Bloc by failing to unite secular forces against the BJP.
“The Congress can’t hope to defeat the Sangh Parivar by feebly mimicking its Hindu majoritarian politics and endorsing BJP’s neo-liberal economic policy that has spelt doom for ordinary people, including farmers,” Mr Govindan said.
Instead, the CPI(M) suggested a free coming together of provincial anti-Sangh Parivar forces of varied political hues at the State level as a better bet against the BJP than any single-party-led national alliance.
The CPI(M) also viewed the Congress’s tactical gambit to field Rahul Gandhi from Wayanad as patently anti-CPI(M, given the LDF’s belief that the BJP was barely in the electoral reckoning in Kerala in the Lok Sabha elections.
The CPI(M) calculated that the IUML’s support was vital for Mr. Gandhi to win in Wayanad, and the “dependency” explained why the Congress was “unduly anxious” that the IUML and CPI(M)‘s “shared opposition” to the Citizens Amendment Act and the Uniform Civil Code would translate into tacit poll understandings in at least a few key constituencies.
Mr. Govindan stoked the perceived apprehension by stating the the UDF was a hollowed-out shell without the IUML. He said the CPI(M) did not see IUML as a prospective LDF partner. “Nevertheless, the CPI(M) would tactically collaborate with secular forces keen to defeat the BJP”, Mr. Govindan said.
The Congress seemed acutely aware of the CPI(M)‘s purported bid to isolate the party in the INDIA Bloc and the UDF in the wake of the BJP’s ascendancy in North and Central India.
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan fought back by stating that secular forces were conscious of the CPI(M)‘s symbiotic relationship with the BJP in Kerala and would not break ranks with the Congress. “Mr. Vijayan seemed most consoled by the BJP’s ascendancy in the Assembly polls,” he quipped.
