Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State secretary M.V. Govindan on Friday accused the Congress of aligning with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and investigating agencies under Central government’s control to prosecute a slander campaign against the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government with an eye on the Puthuppally Assembly byelection scheduled on September 5.
Mr. Govindan said the CPI(M) viewed the line of attack with a sense of deja vu. The Congress and BJP had tried a similar track in the 2021 Assembly elections and failed pathetically.
He said the Central agencies beholden to the BJP provided ammunition for the Congress’ campaign by ensnaring CPI(M) leaders of stature and public standing in false cases. The Congress and the BJP pursued the exact template they embraced in 2021.
Mr. Govindan said CPI(M) legislator A.C. Moideen was the latest victim of the political witchhunt. The Crime Branch investigated the Karuvannur cooperative bank scam case and found nothing adverse against Mr. Moideen. The CPI(M) was not dismissing the gravity of the bank scam. “The elaborate multi-crore fraud is serious. But, Mr. Moideen has no role in it,” Mr. Govindan added.
He rebuked the media for amplifying the lies propagated by the Congress and the BJP. The same journalistic zeal seemed absent when reporting the financial shenanigans of Congress and BJP politicians, Mr. Govindan said.
“I did not see any discussion about the ED questioning KPCC president K. Sudhakaran. The television commentariat was silent about the charges against Congress legislator Mathew Kuzhalnadan,” Mr. Govindan said.
Mr. Govindan said the Congress perceived wrongly that it would be an “easy walkover” for the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Puthuppally. On the campaign trail, the Congress discerned, to its dismay, that there was no palpable disaffection with the government. Congress’ kinship politics and sympathy-mining tactics failed in the constituency. Voters compared Puthuppally’s “development stasis” with the massive infrastructure growth in contiguous Assembly segments. “The accent is on development and not slander and sympathy,” Mr. Govindan said.
“Voters seemed exasperated with the constituency’s developmental backwardness under the Congress and yearned for a change for the good. Hence, a helpless Congress has predictably turned to the Enforcement Directorate and BJP for help, the party’s go-to-electoral muckraking strategy”, Mr Govindan said.
Mr. Govindan dared Mr. Kuzhalnadan, the CPI(M) ‘s latest bugbear, to answer accusations of land grabs and illegally amassing wealth. “If so, I would reply to his charges against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter and business person T. Veena,” Mr Govindan said.
Mr. Govindan said if Mr. Vijayan as Chief Minister had backed Veena’s business ventures, then her company would still be running and churning profits. “The Chief Minister has faced worse recriminatory campaigns and witchhunts, including Lavalin lies, and emerged stronger,” he said.
