Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Kerala BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Sunday hit back at chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan for equating the BJP with the Congress, calling it a “shameless attempt” to attract Muslim voters ahead of the state assembly polls.Chandrasekhar accused both the CPM and the Congress of misleading voters by projecting rivalry in Kerala while aligning in other states.“Don’t you find it amazing comedy that the Congress is accusing the BJP of being the B-team of the CPM, and the CPM is accusing the BJP of being the B-team of the Congress. When they are in a formal alliance, in other states, it is like saying people of Keralam are fools to believe this kind of nonsense,” Chandrasekhar, the BJP candidate from Nemom, told ANI.“Just across the border, they are contesting together in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, and they have the gall to mislead the people of Keralam and say that they are not in an alliance with each other,” he added.The BJP leader alleged that both parties were trying to consolidate minority votes by positioning themselves against the BJP.“This is a shameless attempt with only one goal, both Congress and CPM are desperate to get the votes of the Muslim community. The only way they can get the votes of the Muslim community is by pretending that they are the ones opposing the BJP,” he said.He also cited the Telangana elections, claiming a similar strategy was used against the Bharat Rashtra Samithi.“Congress did it successfully in Telangana. They manufactured a controversy that the BRS is a B-team of the BJP. Sadly, the Muslim vote abandoned the BRS and went to Congress. But people of Keralam will not be fooled by you. They have seen 70 years of corruption, negligence and appeasement and have said enough,” Chandrasekhar said.
Vijayan’s remarks on BJP, Congress
The sharp response comes after Vijayan in an interview with ANI, criticised both the BJP and Congress for having similar positions on key issues.“On such matters, both Congress and the BJP have the same stance. That is why when the BJP came to power, it began to implement Congress policies more intensely,” Vijayan said, referring to the Centre’s approach on West Asia.He also expressed confidence that the BJP would not win any seats in the upcoming polls.“I am firmly convinced that the BJP will not get even a single seat in this Assembly election,” the chief minister said.Rejecting Vijayan’s assertion, Chandrasekhar said electoral outcomes would be decided by voters, not political opponents.“Tragedy is that he (Vijayan) is not the one to decide. The voters will decide. He said that we would not get the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, but we got it,” he said.He added that the BJP is “the largest political party in the world” and an emerging force in Kerala politics, while accusing both CPM and Congress of being “scared to death” of the party.Kerala will vote in a single phase on April 9, with counting scheduled for May 4.
