Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram on Sunday accused the CPI(M) of treating the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as if it were a State-level election in Kerala.
The former Union Finance Minister appealed to the people of Kerala to vote for the Congress, which leads the United Democratic Front (UDF) in the State, since it is better placed than the CPI(M) to form a government at the national level.
“The CPI(M) is fighting the election in Kerala as if it is a State election, This is wrong. My appeal to Mr. Pinarayi Vijayan is to look at this election as a national election which it is. And in the national point of view, who is better placed to fight the BJP? Who is better placed to form the government in Delhi? These are the two questions I will ask myself if I’m a CPI(M) leader,” he said.
The CPI(M), he went on to add, is literally a “one-state party” now.
“The people of Kerala must vote for a party which can form a non-BJP government in Delhi and that party is the Congress and the UDF in Kerala,” he said.
Mr. Chidambaram said that the CPI(M) has no place in the election, considering that its election manifesto is silent on the creation of jobs and wealth, two major challenges before the country.
“This is a national election to elect a national government. And the CPI(M), our principal adversary in Kerala, has nothing to say about job creation and wealth creation,” he alleged. The CPI(M) has “completely ignored” the two burning issues “because it is not likely to be in government or not likely to form the government,” he alleged.
