Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], June 29 : Kerala State BJP President Rajeev Chandrasekhar claimed on Sunday that the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) won the recent Nilambur Assembly by-election due to support from Jamaat-e-Islami, which he described as an "illegal, anti-national, and anti-constitutional' organisation."
"This is neither a victory of the Congress party nor of the UDF. This is a victory for Jamaat-e-Islami," Chandrasekhar told ANI.
"This is a victory for Nilambur in particular. For the UDF, this has been possible due to two reasons: the active support of the Jamaat-e-Islami, which is an illegal, anti-national, and anti-constitutional organisation, and the division of the CPM votes... While the UDF views Nilambur as reflecting the sentiment of Kerala, the majority of Kerala is unlikely to vote for the Jamaat-e-Islami's mandate... It is an extremely dangerous and desperate political move by the Congress to bring the Jamaat-e-Islami into the mainstream," the BJP leader said.
UDF candidate Aryadan Shoukath of Congress defeated LDF's M Swaraj of CPI(M) by a large margin of 11,077 votes in the Nilambur assembly by-election, polling for whoch was held on June 19.
Shoukath had secured 77,737 votes, a lead of 11,077 votes from M Swaraj of the CPM after 19 rounds of counting.
Earlier reacting to the bypoll results, CPI(M) State secretary MV Govindan had said the UDF conducted a communally divisive campaign using the its alliance with the "radical Islamist" Jama'at-e-Islami as a front.
The CPI (M) leader said that the UDF opened the door for Islamist and Hindu majoritarian outfits to leverage votes through schismatic communal messaging. The IUML and Congress have abandoned broad-based party politics. Instead, they have stoked profoundly divisive identity politics for electoral gain, Govindan said.
The bypoll for the Nilambur seat was necessitated after the resignation of Left Democratic Front independent legislator PV Anvar, who later joined the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) after his acrimonious break-up with the ruling alliance.
In its official statement, Congress in Kerala had said, "Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) has won the Nilambur assembly constituency, a sitting seat of the ruling CPM combine, by a huge margin of over 11,000 votes. Big congrats to Aryadan Shoukath and the entire Congress-UDF team that worked relentlessly for this shining victory."
"Successive bypoll wins and a clean sweep in the parliament elections by the Congress and UDF have proved beyond doubt that the anti-incumbency sentiment against the Pinarayi Vijayan government is gaining momentum by the day. Now the anger of the people has reached its peak. The government cannot escape the heat or continue to live in denial, hiding behind the multi-crore PR machinery," it added.