The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday lambasted Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for equating it with the Congress, with party's state unit chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar calling it a 'shameless attempt' to garner Muslim votes. Chandrasekhar, who is BJP's candidate from the Nemom assembly constituency, said the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) are also confusing the voters, as they have an alliance in others states, but are contesting against each other in Kerala.
Speaking to news agency ANI, the former union minister stated that a similar strategy was used by the Congress in neighbouring Telangana where it claimed that the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) is a 'B-team' of the BJP. By doing this, the party received the support of Muslims, Chandrasekhar said, but noted that such a strategy will not work in Kerala as people here have "seen 70 years of corruption, negligence and appeasement".
"Just across the border, they are contesting together in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, and they have the gall to mislead the people of Keralam and say that they are not in an alliance with each other," the Kerala BJP chief said.
"This is a shameless attempt with only one goal, both Congress and CPM are desperate to get the votes of the Muslim community. The only way they can get the votes of the Muslim community is by pretending that they are the ones opposing the BJP," he added.
Chandrasekhar was responding to Vijayan's recent interview with news agency PTI in which he called Congress MP Rahul Gandhi the 'B-team' of the BJP. He also accused the Congress of indulging in appeasement politics.
In response to these allegations, the Congress also slammed Vijayan and party leader KC Venugopal said that the Kerala chief minister is seeking relief from central agencies and so he cannot question Gandhi. He also predicted of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in the Kerala polls.
Elections to the 140-member Kerala Legislative Assembly will be held in a single phase on April 9. The counting of votes will take place on May 4.
