KOCHI: Congress Working Committee member Ramesh Chennithala on Friday alleged that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is trying to create communal polarisation in the state. Chennithala’s comments came in the wake of senior CPM leader A K Balan’s statement on Jamaat-e-Islami.
Addressing the media in Kochi, Chennithala said that the CM is implementing the ‘divide and rule policy’ promoted by the then viceroy Lord Minto during British rule. “Pinarayi is making the Sangh Parivar’s job to divide Kerala along religious lines easy.
He is implementing whatever the BJP wants. The CM’s recent statements make it clear that the CPM can survive in the 2026 elections only through communal division. By supporting Balan’s statement that the Marad incident will be repeated if UDF comes to power, the chief minister has confirmed that the CPM’s political strategy to fight the upcoming elections is communal division,” he alleged.
He also criticised the CM for supporting Balan. “At the CPM Thiruvananthapuram district committee meeting, party secretary M V Govindan had strongly criticised Balan’s statement that Jamaat-e-Islami would rule the state if the UDF came to power. But the chief minister took a stand in support of Balan.