CPI(M) fetes expelled Congress leader

Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] on Friday welcomed expelled Congress leader P.S. Prasanth into its fold.

CPI(M) acting State secretary A. Vijayaraghavan feted him at the AKG Centre in front of a phalanx of television news cameras.

Mr. Prasanth had contested the 2021 Assembly elections on the UDF ticket from Nedumangadu. He was a KPCC secretary till last week.

In his defection statement, Mr. Prasanth damned Congress for losing its secular character, ignoring regional leaders, and promoting persons with mafia links.

Recently, Mr. Prasanth had invited the wrath of the Congress leadership by describing AICC general secretary, organisation, K.C. Venugopal, as a “trojan horse” for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

He had also accused DCC president Thiruvananthapuram, Palode Ravi, of being covertly Sangh Parivar and a mafia underling.

In a letter to the party’s high command, Mr. Prasanth said defections from the Congress to the BJP had mounted under Mr. Venugopal’s watch. The KPCC had thrown him after it anticipated the CPI(M) move.

Mr. Vijayaraghavan hinted that the trickle of deserters from the Congress and UDF would soon increase to a flow.

The RSP is aligned with the Left at the Centre. In Kerala, the RSP has made no secret that its foray into the UDF fold had proved to be a let down.

Let the RSP make its position clear as the Kerala Congress (M) did earlier. The IUML also faced mutiny within its ranks. The UDF was on its last legs, he said.

Congress was falling apart. It was riven with infighting in Kerala, Punjab, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Lack of inner-party democracy had undermined the party’s core.

BJP had copied Congress’s anti-poor economic policy. Congress had lost the might to resist BJP’s brand of divisive majoritarian politics, he said.

Congress high command operated in privileged isolation, far removed from ground realities. Its politics were personality centred.

Scores of secular Congress workers were disillusioned with the party's leadership. Many think only the CPI(M) offered a safe harbour for them, Mr. Vijayaraghavan said.