Janata Dal (Secular) [JD(S)] national president H.D. Deve Gowda’s startling claim that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had tacitly backed his move to align with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) roiled Kerala politics on Friday. The Congress said Mr. Gowda had let the cat out of the bag by revealing the Communist Party of India (Marxist)‘s [CPI(M)] secret nexus with the BJP.
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan said the CBI’s “dithering” in the SNC-Lavalin case in the Supreme Court and “meandering money laundering probes” against CPI(M) leaders bespoke the secret axis. He said the “clandestine covenant” also explained why the CPI(M) in Kerala strong-armed the party’s Central leadership away from becoming a constituent of the INDIA bloc coordination committee.
‘Expel from Cabinet’
Mr. Satheesan said the CPI(M) had sacrificed its principles for political expediency and pulled the wool over the eyes of the secular polity. He dared the CPI(M) to prove its secular credentials by expelling Power Minister K. Krishnankutty from the Cabinet.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan pushed back firmly against Mr. Gowda’s claim and Congress’s insinuations. “Mr. Gowda is justifying his political flip-flops by floating barefaced lies. He had betrayed the founding socialist ideals of the JD(S) to align with the BJP in 2006 so his son could become the Karnataka Chief Minister. The opportunistic alliance is nothing new,” Mr. Vijayan said.
Mr. Vijayan said Congress leaders had made a spectacle of themselves by chasing the chimera that CPI(M) and BJP were in cahoots in Kerala. He reminded the party that it had backed BJP’s candidate Sumalatha to win the Mandya Lok Sabha seat in Karnataka. Mr. Vijayan said the Congress was in league with the BJP in several local bodies in Kerala to keep the LDF out of power.
Mr. Vijayan justified the JD(S) presence in the LDF Cabinet. “JD(S) State president Mathew T. Thomas and Minister K. Krishnankutty have disavowed Mr. Gowda’s opportunistic right-wing lurch and remained staunchly left,” Mr. Vijayan said.
“It is not the CPI(M)‘s business to poke into the internal matters of an alliance partner,” he added. Mr. Krishnakutty and Mr. Thomas had rejected Mr. Gowda’s claim. They said the JD(S) in Kerala remained firmly committed to the founding principles of Gandhi and Ram Manohar Lohya.
