KOZHIKODE:
Two days after Kerala went to the polls to elect 20 Lok Sabha members, a leader of the state’s ruling CPM on Thursday alleged that there was an “unholy alliance” between the BJP and the Congress and they engaged in trading of votes.
Kerala recorded 77.68 per cent polling, up from 74.02 per cent in 2014. Kozhikode district Communist Party of India-Marxist secretary P. Mohanan told the media that in constituencies like Kannur, Kozhikode and Vadakara, this “unholy alliance” took place to defeat the CPM.
“In Kozhikode and Vadakara, the BJP has traded its votes to the Congress candidates and in these areas, the yesteryear’s ‘secret alliance CO-LE-B’ (Congress, Indian Union Muslim League and the BJP) was very active. In several places in these constituencies, both the BJP and Congress workers were hand in glove. The feature of this trading was evident in constituencies where, the BJP fielded weak candidates,” he said.
The CPM also suspects that “vote leaks” have taken place in Kollam and Attingal constituencies.
Intelligence reports have now surfaced which has predicted that the candidates of the CPM led-Left Front Democrat candidates have not been able to put in a good performance.
The CPM has an internal mechanism of analyzing the pattern of voting soon after polling ends and the top brass of the party is meeting here on Friday to take a final stock of the polling, when more details of this “vote-trading” are expected to come out. State Congress chief Mullapally Ramachandran, however, slammed the CPM’s allegations and said that he will leave politics if it proves that there was a secret deal between his party and the BJP.
“Who does not know that it was Vijayan who acted between the RSS and the CPM. If the CPM proves the involvement of the Congress in any such unholy alliance, I will end my public life,” he said.
K. Surendran, the BJP candidate at Pathanamthitta constituency (where the Sabarimala temple is located) told that the CPM need not worry about BJP votes. “What the CPM should be worried is that when votes are counted, they should be able to answer about their missing votes,” said Surendran, who expects his victory.
A meeting of the RSS leaders at Kochi on Thursday has concluded that the BJP candidates will win Thiruvananthapuram and Pathanamthitta.
“Lot of new voters have voted and this shows that they want a change… I am confident that I will win,” said Kummanem Rajasekheran, the BJP candidate who took on Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who is aiming for a hat trick in the Thiruvananthapuram constituency.
