Congress not being accepted as alternative to BJP: Pinarayi Vijayan

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday launched a scathing attack on the Congress, BJP and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) while speaking at a party meeting held at his home district- Kannur.

Vijayan said in the national scenario, the Congress party is supporting the BJP.

"The Congress is now not seen as an alternative to the BJP by the people. It's due to that in Tamil Nadu, the DMK failed to give more seats to the Congress (Assembly polls). The Left will now go forward by grouping the various regional parties and emerge as an alternative to the Congress," said Vijayan.

He said the BJP is governing the country for the corporates and taking a cue from what happened in Tripura and West Bengal, where the Left was in power for long, he said there should be introspection on what happened there now and one has to tread cautiously.

"We should through our good governance gain the confidence of the people here, as we have provided a viable alternative through our policies and programmes," added Vijayan.

Training his guns at the IUML- the second biggest ally of the Congress-led UDF, Vijayan said they are out to create a divide and that was seen in the way they handled the issue of the appointments to be made to the Waqf Board.

"It was after the Waqf Board which requested to hand over all the appointments to the Board to the PSC. Then we floated a Bill in the Assembly. At that time, all the IUML members said was to ensure that the present employees working in the Board be protected. And after that when the Bill was passed and the law floated to hand over all appointments to the PSC, they started a smear campaign and created issues," he said.

Incidentally early this week, Vijayan assured a group of Muslim leaders that the government has stayed handing over the appointments of the Board to the PSC and a detailed discussion with all concerned will be held.

"It's high time that you (IUML) should take stock of who you are and you should not forget that today the difference of votes in Malappurram between the UDF in which you are and the Left is marginal. Your position is becoming weaker," said Vijayan.