“What matters for the Congress are group equations and narrow interests,” CPI General Secretary Sudhakar Reddy said on Thursday, while speaking at a Meet the Press event organised by the Kerala Union of Working Journalists in Thiruvananthapuram. The senior leader of the Communist party flayed the Congress for failing to reach a consensus to form alliances in several states.
‘The narrow interests and factional feud prevented the Congress from realising its mission of forming a secular, democratic alliance. In Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) have kept the Congress out of the alliance. This has created doubts among large sections of the people,” he said.
He blamed the Congress ‘for being opportunistic when it comes to secularism and for being soft on communalism.’
“We are trying for a committed opposition that will raise the voice of the people and only the Left can do that,” he said.
On Rahul Gandhi contesting in Wayanad he said, “Why is he coming all the way from Amethi to get defeated here? In Kerala, we will win all the 20 seats. Since Rahul Gandhi is a candidate here, the fight will also be against him. It is for him to explain what the message his candidature will give; it doesn’t give a good signal because in Kerala the fight is not against the BJP but against the Left.”
About the opinion polls conducted by two major media houses in the state, he said that even in 2004 elections, when there was a Left wave, the opinion polls had predicted otherwise.
The recent opinion polls have predicted an upper hand for the UDF and one even predicted BJP’s victory in Thiruvananthapuram seat where the LDF’s candidate is CPI’s C Divakaran.
“Sometimes it is biased, sometimes purposeful. How can a survey with the voices of a few hundred people and leaving out the majority, reflect the opinion of the people,” he asked.
On the entry of young women into Sabarimala, Sudhakar Reddy said that the Congress and the BJP used it politically. “But the Left government handled it carefully,” he said.
About the ongoing debate on whether Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) is a secular party or not, he said the party represents the Muslim community. IUML is an ally of the Congress in the UDF. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had recently remarked that IUML is a virus that has infected the Congress. Reddy said that he is not supposed to answer for what Adityanath has said while adding, “We never said IUML is communal, neither that they are secular.”