

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The BJP has slammed the UDF for failing to decide on a chief minister more than a week after the election results were announced. Describing the episode as a “disgrace to enlightened Kerala”, BJP state general secretary S Suresh alleged that the Congress would choose the new CM only after getting the green signal from the IUML and the Jammat-e -Islami.
“Whether it is KC (Venugopal) or VD (Satheesan) or (Ramesh) Chennithala, the pick would have to be the slave of the Aamir (state head of the Jammat e Islami),” Suresh told a news conference here on Tuesday. He reminded the Congress that it was not the workers of the “communal” IUML or the “extremist” Jammat e Islami alone that voted for the UDF but lakhs of secular-minded people from all communities.
“If the Congress panders to these forces, there would be a huge backlash from the common people and BJP would support it,” Suresh said. The BJP leader also lashed out at the LDF for not deciding a Leader of Opposition yet. “The BJP’s argument before the election, that the Left and the right are one and the same, has been proven true,” he said.
The BJP leader said the uncertainty over CM selection has rendered Kerala “rudderless” and an “administrative crisis” existed in the state. “Only three weeks are left for schools to reopen and students have not got their textbooks. Rain-related epidemics are on the rise and no steps have been taken to tackle them. Meanwhile, senior IAS officers are engaged in a turf war,” Suresh said.
Accusing the LDF of transferring its votes to the Muslim League to defeat BJP candidates in Manjeshwar and Kasaragod, Suresh said the national secretary of the INL, an LDF ally, has admitted it publicly.