Kochi: The emergence of BJP is a threat to the secular fabric of the state, senior Congress leader and former defence minister A K Antony said on Sunday.
Asserting his belief that BJP won’t “open its account” in Kerala, the former chief minister said the poll battle was between the LDF and UDF.
Chief minister Oommen Chandy’s reported statement that BJP’s real fight in constituencies where it has strong footing was with the UDF had led to a controversy on Saturday.
Chandy and KPCC president V M Sudheeran later corrected the statement. Rapping Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speeches on developing Kerala, the former chief minister requested him to spare Kerala from being another Gujarat.
“Please do not make Kerala a state like Gujarat. Let us live the way we live now, have the food we like, wear the dress we want and follow our religious practices. Let us live in peace and unison,” he said at a meet the-press programme organised by the Press Club here. Antony said the Modi government had done nothing to help the crisis-hit rubber and cardamom farmers. “The Prime Minister says that the income of farmers in the country will double by 2022. But how will they live till then,” he asked.
He also rubbished the CPM’s allegation regarding the existence of a Co-Le-B axis (Congress-League-BJP). “Congress is the opposition in all the states under the BJP rule. We are the one who always fought against RSS and BJP, not the CPM,” he said.
Antony said it was unfortunate that SNDP Yogam chief Vellappally Natesan has joined hands with the BJP and RSS, “who are in favour of religion-based politics.”