Tie-up between UDF and Jamaat a threat to secularism: CPI(M) Kerala secretary

Thiruvananthapuram | The "secret alliance" between the opposition UDF and Jamaat-e-Islami for the local body polls in Kerala is posing a grave threat to the secular fabric of the state, CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan said on Friday.

Addressing a press meet here, he alleged that the Congress has already announced that they would not have an "open" alliance with the Welfare Party of Jamaat-e-Islami in the coming local body elections.

“This is an open admission that they (UDF) will have a secret tie-up in the poll. It is just that the Congress is still shying away from openly telling the people about the alliance,” Govindan said.

He alleged that the ideological leadership of UDF partners Congress and Muslim League is presently being controlled by the Jamaat-e-Islami. The Muslim League had already held talks with Jamaat leaders and fixed their candidates in various local bodies in Malappuram district, he claimed.

Govindan said the UDF will have to pay for the "appeasement" of communal elements and fail in their attempt to weaken the Left Democratic Front (LDF).

On the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, he alleged that the Election Commission of India (ECI) had totally surrendered to the interests of the RSS-BJP combine.

He said in Kerala, the BJP had tried to enroll ineligible persons to the voters list before the local body polls.

The LDF government will move the Supreme Court against the hurried move to introduce SIR in Kerala and the government's stand on the issue has been supported by all non-BJP parties in the state.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had also exposed several malpractices in the voters list in other states, he said.

Reacting to the victory of Zohran Mamdani in the New York mayoral elections, he said a leftist, socialist way of thinking is gaining predominance in several parts of the world in recent times.

He also commended the victory of leftist students' front in the elections to the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) union elections.