An online meeting of the Congress-led United Democratic Front Opposition (UDF) on Thursday reportedly resolved not to join hands with the State government to protest against the Centre’s alleged financial embargo on Kerala.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had invited Leader of the Opposition V. D. Satheesan and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) general secretary P. K. Kunhalikutty to join him and the rest of his Cabinet and Left Democratic Front (LDF) legislators in a high-profile protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on February 8. However, the UDF meeting rejected the invitation. Its legislators and MPs would boycott the protest. Whether the UDF would hold a parallel protest against the Centre’s alleged strangulation of State finances and trespasses on fiscal federalism remains unclear.
The Opposition relationship with the government has hit a dismal low given the police action against Youth Congress and Kerala Student Union activists who staged black flag protests against Mr. Vijayan’s motorcade during the Navkerala Sadas campaign. Moreover, the government’s alleged attempt to ensnare top Congress leaders, including Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president K. Sudhakaran, in criminal cases had enraged the UDF.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the UDF felt it could ill afford to draw a political equivalency between the Opposition and the ruling front in the Congress’ battle against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The CPI(M)‘s “relentless attempts” to ideologically equate the Congress with the BJP to “alienate the Opposition from the sizeable minority communities” in Kerala had got on the UDF’s nerves.
The UDF seemed acutely aware that any truck with the CPI(M) in Kerala would lend credibility to the BJP’s arguments that the ruling front and the Opposition were allies masquerading as political opponents to hoodwink the State’s electorate.
In a recent visit to the State, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for an end to revolving door politics that saw the UDF and LDF governments replacing each other in turns.
The LDF reportedly sought to portray the UDF’s decision not to align with the government against the Centre’s squeezing of State finances as a betrayal of State interests.
The LDF has spotlighted the Centre’s systematic attempts to deny the State its due, including whittling down the devolution of taxes and implementing a cess regime where States have no claim, as a major election issue.
