Communist Party of India (Marxist) acting State secretary A. Vijayaraghavan said there was no ambiguity in the anti-Pinarayi Vijayan government political line publicly articulated by the Nair Service Society (NSS) leadership on polling day on April 6.
When pressed that newspersons had misinterpreted NSS general secretary Sukumaran Nair’s controversial public appeal on the polling day as anti-government, Mr. Vijayaraghavan said: “The NSS leadership was vehemently opposed to a second term for the Left Democratic Front. However, NSS members themselves rejected their leadership’s line and voted overwhelmingly for the LDF. NSS supporters realised that their leadership’s inexplicable antipathy to the LDF was hardly conducive to retarding the pandemic, ensuring development, and rescuing the State from economic collapse”.
The LDF had surmounted long odds to author a resounding victory. The Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, Jamaat-e-Islami, Indian Union Muslim League, and some social organisations had arrayed themselves against the Left. Seeking a short cut to victory, the Congress had bought votes from the BJP. It had the support of Islamist forces. However, Kerala pitched for secularism, welfare and development. It embraced the Left.
The people had defeated the nexus of communal forces that forced the dismissal of the first Communist government under E.M.S. Namboodiripad in 1957. They had also laid the ground for forming a secular and pro-people alternative to the BJP at the Centre.
