The Congress on Wednesday depicted the Social Democratic Party of India’s (SDPI) controversial public declaration of support for the party in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in somewhat ambiguous terms.
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In Kannur, KPCC president K. Sudhakaran said the Congress has no business with any radical outfit. “However, all votes were welcome, be it the SDPI or the CPI(M),” he said.
On Tuesday, Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan had said no one could blame the SDPI for viewing the Congress as the sole secular bulwark against the Sangh Parivar.
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The Congress’s refusal to reject SDPI’s backing arguably stemmed from the perception that it could not take Muslim votes for granted in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The CPI(M) has tom-tommed that the United Democratic Front (UDF) faced a collapse of support among minorities owing to the Congress’s alleged pussyfooting around emotive issues such as the Citizen’s (Amendment) Act (CAA), the Ayodhya temple issue, and Manipur violence.
The party has repeatedly cited editorials published by the mouthpieces of influential Muslim social organisations, including their concerns about increasing defections from the Congress to the BJP, to bolster the Left Democratic Front’s case.
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The CPI(M), with an arguably unflinching eye on the sizeable minority votes in Kerala, has made the issues, including the NCR and criminalisation of Muslim personal laws, including triple talaq, the central plank of the LDF’s campaign in the State.
The Congress reportedly also felt torn that it could not imperil its support among the Christians and the Hindus by appearing to accept the support of the SDPI, an organisation that allegedly bears the stigma of being empathetic to the proscribed Popular Front of India.
The LDF and UDF seemed acutely aware that the social consequences of CAA and allied issues, including the purported threat to secularism and federalism, would play out strongly in the Lok Sabha polls in the State.
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The LDF calculates that the visceral nature of the subjects could offset any disadvantage of incumbency. The UDF has accused the ruling front of cynically playing on the fear of minorities to eclipse its governance and fiscal failures.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sought to exploit the Congress’s alleged ambiguity about the SDPI votes by accusing the party of courting radical Islamist outfits and their front organisations.
In Wayanad, BJP State president K. Surendran termed Mr. Gandhi’s “silence” on the SDPI’s unconditional support of the Congress in the Lok Sabaha polls “perilous.”
In Thiruvananthapuram, the BJP’s Kerala-in-charge, Prakash Javadekar, termed the purported alliance a threat to national security.