Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi has adopted an aggressive posture against the Left Front government in Kerala. He has repeatedly been accusing the Chief Minister Pinayari Vijayan of colluding with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to defeat the Congress. So much so that Gandhi claims that the CPM in Kerala is no more a left party as it has ‘aligned’ with an ‘extreme right’ party, the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The stakes are quite high for both the Congress as well as the CPM in Kerala. Of the four states and a union territory, which are going for polls in April, the Congress stands a good chance only in Kerala. The parliamentary and the local bodies’ election results in the state in the last two years have given a strong hope to the Congress that it may be able to replace the ten-year LDF rule in the state. The party has very bleak chances in Assam and no chance at all in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
If the Congress is not able to win Kerala this time, it will be a complete blank for the party. In these elections, Rahul may not have ruse and excuse of accusing the BJP of ‘stealing the elections’. Or, he may already be preparing the one, in case of a loss in Kerala, that the BJP colluded with the CPM and helped it ‘steal’ the elections in Kerala. The way Rahul is repeatedly accusing the CPM led Left Front government there of colluding with the BJP, leaves hardly any doubt how he will interpret the results there, in case these happen to be adverse.
Also read: What’s behind Pak’s war with Taliban government?
For the Left Front, Kerala is the last bastion in India. From being once a force to reckon with, the CPM has been left with just four seats in Lok Sabha and three in the Rajya Sabha.
If it loses Kerala also, it runs the risk of getting completely wiped out. The CPM has only one Lok Sabha MP and all the three Rajya Sabha MPs from Kerala. The other three Lok Sabha MPs are from Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, two and one, respectively, which was because the CPM was part of the INDIA bloc during the 2024 General Elections.
Interestingly, both the Congress and the CPM are part of the DMK led ‘secular coalition’ in the neighbouring Tamil Nadu, which also is going for the assembly polls in April. Nothing can explain the contradictions in the opposition INDIA bloc better than this. While Gandhi and his party are alliance partners of the CPM in Tamil Nadu, in Kerala he is accusing the party (the CPM) of being in collusion with the BJP.
As already explained, the Congress and Gandhi have their own compulsion in Kerala, where they see a strong chance of victory. That is why they have gone all out against the Communist regime there, unsparingly, so much so accusing it of being in ‘alliance with the BJP’.
Compare the situation with West Bengal. Like the Left Front in Kerala, the Trinamool Congress does not provide any space to the Congress in West Bengal. Still, the Congress is very soft towards the TMC and its leader Mamata Bannerjee.
While the Congress has never been a force to reckon with in West Bengal for the last fifty years now, but whatever remnants of the Grand Old Party had been left there, the Congress surrendered these to the TMC in the hope and expectation that it will firmly stand against the BJP.
The Congress went to the extent of appeasing Mamata, so much that the party sacrificed its five-time MP and the incumbent Leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in the last General Elections. Had the Congress taken a tactful stand, he would not have lost. But the Congress did not want to displease Mamata, as she wanted Chowdhury to lose.
The Congress indeed has solid reasons to ‘support’ Mamata, albeit in a subtle and strategic way, as she is in a position to check the BJP’s expansion into Bengal. She has held her forte against the BJP for all these years despite its massive might. For the Congress, in choosing between the BJP and the TMC, the latter is the obvious choice, and may be the lesser evil. Hence the party’s generous concessions to Mamata and the TMC.
In Kerala, there is no such challenge. The only challenge in Kerala is the CPM, about which the Congress is of the firm belief that it can replace it. Had the BJP been in a relatively better position in Kerala also, the Congress approach towards the Left Front and the Chief Minister Vijayan would have been different.
This proves one important fact that the Congress treats its allies depending on its own compulsions, weaknesses and strengths. The same Congress, which is prostrating before the TMC in West Bengal because of being very weak there, is being belligerently aggressive towards the Left Front in Kerala, because it knows that it does not need anybody’s support there.
There is nothing wrong with such an approach. The party should adopt it as a nationwide policy. It is fine to be nice and accommodative with the allies, but trying to be extra nice with the parties like the TMC, which are not even your allies, just because they are opposed to the BJP, does not serve any purpose for the Congress. Rather, it weakens the party and takes away its bargaining power.
Just to keep the BJP in check, the Congress is paying too heavy a price.
It should adopt the ‘Kerala Model’ of aggression across the country, no matter who is in opposition to it.
Follow us
