Congress Working Committee member A.K. Antony has accused the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of trying to polarise the State into two camps.
He was inaugurating a convention of the United Democratic Front (UDF) to declare its agitation against the Central and State governments here on Monday.
The UDF should launch an agitation to remove the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre through ballot. The first aim of the agitation should be to save the country and second to free the State from the Left Democratic Front government. He accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh of trying to destroy the diversity of the nation. The BJP is trying to polarise the country communally, he said. The UDF should make an all-out bid to isolate the BJP in the State. He called for efforts to make the Centre declare compensation for the victims of demonetisation.
In Kerala, movement of files pertaining to welfare and development initiatives has come to a naught at the Secretariat, he said. “Administrative Reforms Commission chairman V.S. Achuthanandan had referred to the administrative stalemate in Kerala,” he said.
Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, in his presidential address, described Mr. Modi and Mr. Vijayan as birds of the same feather. Mr. Vijayan was not even heeding the views of CPI, its main ally or senior leader Mr. Achuthanandan.
IUML State president Panakkad Hyder Ali Shihab Thangal said the BJP and the LDF were vying with each other in pursuing anti-people policies. Time has come for an agitation against the State and Central governments, he said.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president V.M. Sudheeran the people who voted for the LDF and the NDA were dejected. If Mr. Modi was an epitome of communal fascism, Mr. Vijayan was a symbol of political fascism, he said.