Congress’s K. Babu, who got elected from Thripunithura, on Tuesday took exception to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s allegation that attributed his victory to vote trade-off between the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
In a statement issued here, Mr. Babu said that the allegation was baseless and amounted to an insult of people of Thripunithura.
He claimed that the 29,843 votes secured by the BJP in Thripunithura in 2016 was on account of the stature of the party candidate Thuravur Vishwambaran whose credentials as a spiritual orator and college professor helped him secure the votes of the Hindu faithful and his band of old students.
The drop of 6,087 votes for the BJP in comparison to the last election should be honestly reviewed by that party and the CPI(M). “What attraction did a candidate who had jumped ship from the Congress to join the BJP had in comparison to Thuravur Viswambaran should be given a thought. Besides, the BJP had the firm support of the BDJS in the last election and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign in the constituency had also helped the BJP then,” Mr. Babu said.
He also accused the Chief Minister of conveniently forgetting the RSS ideologue R. Balasankar’s allegation of a CPI(M)-BJP nexus and the pandemonium it triggered in the BJP camp. He said that revelation alone was enough to understand which way the BJP votes had swung.
He urged CPI(M) to analyse whether the incumbent’s working style and the hurt he allegedly inflicted on the Hindu sentiments had influenced the election verdict.
