Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan has slammed the Communist Party of India (Marxist)‘s [CPI(M)] attempts to dismiss the United Democratic Front’s (UDF) victory in the Palakkad Assembly bypoll by propagating the narrative that the UDF’s victory was crafted by the votes of Muslim fundamentalists and the Sangh Parivar.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Mr. Satheesan said the CPI(M) was disparaging the people of Palakkad by claiming that the victory of Rahul Mamkootathil, by a margin of over 18,000 votes, belonged to Muslim fundamentalist parties like the Welfare Party of India and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI).
Listing figures
The CPI(M) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were speaking in the same voice and the former seemed to be more upset about the votes that the BJP lost. BJP’s E. Sreedharan, a popular technocrat, had secured over 50,000 votes when he contested in the Palakkad Assembly seat in 2021. BJP’s votes dropped to 39,000 votes this time and a chunk of those votes polled for Mr. Sreedharan went to Mr. Mamkootathil. Does the CPI(M) mean to say that the votes for Mr. Sreedharan were that of the SDPI and the Welfare Party, Mr. Satheesan asked.
“The CPI(M) claims that it has increased its vote share this time, though it has not scored even 1,000 votes more than the previous election. The new voters’ list has 15,000 more votes than the list in 2021. Over 7,000 of these new votes were polled for the Congress. Then at least 3,000 votes should have gone to the CPI(M), which has not happened. This means that CPI(M)’s vote share went down from that of 2021,” he said.
Mr. Satheesan said that for the last 30 years, Jamaat-e-Islami has been with the CPI(M). The party’s mouthpiece Deshabhimani had even written an editorial on April 22, 1996, in appreciation of the support rendered by the Jamaat. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had visited the headquarters of the Jamaat. “It just shows how deceitful the CPI(M) is, when it stands with the BJP to propagate the narrative about Jamaat and Muslim fundamentalism,” he said.
On Chelakkara
The Palakkad win of the Congress destroyed all these narratives of CPI(M) but by holding on to its pet theories the CPI(M) was sliding to a new low. As for the Chelakkara Assembly constituency, in the 2021 polls, CPI(M) won by a margin of 28,000 votes. It is because of anti-incumbency that the CPI(M)’s victory margin got reduced to 12,000 votes this time, Mr. Satheesan said. He said the UDF’s campaign at Chelakkara had been faultless. However, even when the UDF garnered a landslide win in 2001, Chelakkara had been a CPI(M) seat.
Mr. Satheesan said the UDF would seriously examine its win at Palakkad and the loss at Chelakkara. The Congress will work on its organisational and in the next one year, it will recapture Thrissur district that was once a UDF fortress, Mr. Satheesan said.
The CPI(M) was crying hoarse that there was a ‘Vadakara-Palakkad’ deal between the BJP and the Congress. Yet both seats are with the Congress now. The CPI(M) should now explain what this deal was. All along, in Palakkad, even when it was sure that it would be pushed to third place, the CPI(M)’s sole aim was to defeat the Congress. When finding innovative means to trap the UDF in various controversies, did the party utter even a word against the BJP, Mr. Satheesan asked.
Published - November 24, 2024 08:04 pm IST
