Kerala elections: Win or lose, Congress could ‘transition into BJP’ in Kerala, alleges CPI(M) leader M. Swaraj

M. Swaraj, CPI(M) State secretariat member in Kerala, has said that the Congress has a track record of “transitioning into the BJP” in several parts of the country and that such a transformation would be “faster” in Kerala.

Addressing the media at Lenin Centre, Kaloor, in Kochi on Tuesday hours before the public campaign for the April 9 polling was set to end, the CPI(M) leader cited instances of groups of Congress MLAs joining the BJP in different States and warned the electorate in Kerala of such a scenario in the State too.

Referring to a recent remark reportedly made by social commentator M.N. Karassery that the Congress leaders may join the BJP if the party fails in the Assembly elections, Mr. Swaraj said “recent history proves otherwise too.”

“The Congress need not lose an election for its leaders to join the BJP. History has shown us the Congress transitioning into the BJP even after winning elections,” he said, citing defections of Congress MLAs, including former Chief Ministers, to the BJP in States including Goa, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh in recent years.

“The Congress is not the name of a political party. It’s the name of a road to the BJP,” the former Thripunithura MLA said.

He also alleged that the Congress governments in several States had “never taken strong actions” against those responsible for the communal riots that happened happened under the party’s rule.

Slams Congress on Wayanad funds

Mr. Swaraj, meanwhile, stepped up attack against the Congress over the alleged anomalies in the funds collected by the Opposition party for building houses for the victims of the Wayanad landslide.

“The whole issue has exposed the Congress. Have you ever reported an incident of a theft from a house preparing for a funeral? A thief would show the propriety not to steal from such a place. Does the Congress have any conscience left?”

He said it was “a victory of Keralam” that the Congress was forced to make public the accounts of its Wayanad funds, “though the figures were fudged.” “Kerala will be looted if the Congress comes to power,” he said.

He also took a dig at Congress leader Mathew Kuzhalnadan’s allegation that the 2018 floods were caused by corrupt practices of the LDF government. “I wonder why Mr. Kuzhalnadan did not move the court with the allegations. He must have had enough already,” Mr. Swaraj said, in a veiled reference to the reported setbacks the Congress leader suffered from courts on previous occasions in the case relating to the alleged CMRL pay-off scam involving Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his daughter T. Veena.