Despite INDIA bloc accord, Congress delineates political boundaries between UDF and LDF in Kerala

Satheesan says UDF will not step into the political trap set by the CPI(M) by joining the cabinet in an anti-Centre protest in New Delhi.

A file photo of Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan and Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan

The Congress has emphatically underscored that the United Democratic Front (UDF) will have no truck with the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala despite the patently anti-Bharatiya Janata Party accord (INDIA bloc) between the opposing alliances at the national level.

Leader of the Opposition V. D. Satheesan delineated the political boundaries between the UDF and LDF in Kerala with a metaphorical red-marker by roundly rejecting Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s invitation to join him in a high-profile protest against the Centre’s “financial embargo” on Kerala in New Delhi on February 8.

Congress seemed wary that any attempt to blur the line between the ruling and opposing alliances in provincial politics would benefit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

For one, Prime Minister Narendra Modi cast Kerala’s “LDF-UDF revolving door politics” as the State’s bane. Mr. Modi also drew an equivalency between the LDF and UDF by repeatedly referring to the Pinarayi Vijayan government as an INDIA bloc administration at a recent rally in Thrissur.

Mr. Satheesan said the “UDF unanimously decided not to fall into the trap set by the CPI(M)“. The decision dovetailed with Congress’s line that CPI(M) and BJP shared a symbiotic association in Kerala to undermine the party’s electoral chances, mainly because of Rahul Gandhi’s possible candidature from the Wayanad constituency in the impending Lok Sabha elections.

In an open letter to Mr. Vijayan on Friday, Mr Satheesan termed the LDF’s narrative laying the entire blame for the State’s crippling financial crisis on the Centre hugely misleading.

Mr. Satheesan said the Centre’s strangulation of the State’s finances had merely exacerbated the fiscal crisis precipitated by the LDF’s economic mismanagement, corruption, extravagance and slack tax administration. He said Kerala had become a haven for tax dodgers.

CPI(M) State Secretary M.V. Govindan posited that Congress’s “arbitrary decision” to boycott Kerala’s politically bipartisan struggle for existence had paved the way for the UDF’s unravelling.

He said the cracks in the Opposition alliance, caused by Congress’s soft-Hindutva line, were already showing. Mr Govindan said Congress had myopically sacrificed Kerala’s welfare at the altar of political expediency. The decision will cost the Congress dear, he said.