NEW DELHI: With Kerala elections round the corner, tensions surfaced within the Opposition alliance INDIA bloc on Monday after Left leaders objected to remarks by Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi alleging links between the ruling CPI (M) and the BJP in the state.
At a meeting of the INDIA bloc on Monday, CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas and CPI MP P Sandosh Kumar took strong exception to Gandhi’s remarks made during a speech in Kerala on Sunday where he referred to the CPM as ‘CJP’ and alleged that the CPM and the BJP are working together in Kerala "to defeat the United Democratic Front (UDF).
"I have 36 cases on me. I have been interrogated by the ED for 55 hours continuously. Why has the ED taken no action on the Chief Minister of Kerala and his family? The reason is that they are working together. In fact, in Kerala, it is not the CPM and the BJP. It is the CJP. Everybody knows that they are partners and working together in Kerala to defeat the UDF. The exact same way that Trump controls PM Modi, PM Modi controls the Chief Minister of Kerala. Everybody knows this. If you seriously go and ask workers of the CPM this question, they will admit that what I am saying is correct,” he said.
According to sources, Sandosh Kumar raised the issue and reminded Gandhi that such comments ‘did not behove' the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Both Brittas and Sandosh Kumar conveyed that while political rivalry between the Congress and the Left in Kerala was understandable, publicly branding the ‘CPI (M) as the B team of BJP’ is detrimental to the INDIA bloc in its fight against the BJP at the national level.
Meanwhile, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge intervened to say that the differences among alliance partners should be resolved internally rather than discussing in the forum. Sources said that Rahul Gandhi did not respond to the objections raised by the Left MPs.
Later, speaking to reporters, Congress general secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal said that though the Left MPs tried to bring up the issue, other alliance partners discouraged them, saying that it was not the appropriate forum to discuss it. However, Sandosh Kumar rejected Venugopal’s claims and told this paper that the matter was raised within the alliance forum because such statements had wider political implications for the opposition s collective fight against the BJP.