Congress, BJP differ only in their names: Pinarayi Vijayan

KANNUR: Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that Congress could not be trusted and with some of its leaders joining the BJP, the only difference between both the parties remains in their names. Addressing the election campaigns of the LDF candidates in Kasaragod and Kannur constituencies on Friday, the CM said former central ministers, chief ministers, MPs and, in some cases like Tripura, the entire state committee members of Congress have joined BJP.
“We know, in Maharashtra, the opposition leader is now campaigning for the BJP while here we have heard that some leaders were planning to join BJP, following which one leader had to even publish an advertisement, saying he would not join BJP,” said Vijayan, in a veiled attack on UDF candidate for Kannur K Sudhakaran.
He also blamed that the Congress took a soft stance towards communal politics, which made it vulnerable. “Even now it is not learning anything from the experience and is having the same soft attitude towards communalism,” Vijayan said.
The scenario in 2014 was the same as now, where the people were desperate to oust the Manmohan Singh government, he said. “BJP came to power, exploiting that dissatisfaction by making lots of promises. But, if we analyse the past 10 years, we can see the Modi government began from where the Manmohan Singh government had left,” he said. The only difference between the Congress and the BJP is in their names and not policies as both worked for the rich, he added.
Most of the people in the country now want the BJP government to go and wish for a secular government, the CM said, adding that the BJP was taking steps to implement the RSS agenda to destroy secularism.
The Citizenship Bill was the latest example of the BJP government’s efforts to divide India based on religion, he said.
Unlike other secular parties, the Congress is not strong in resisting this, Vijayan said. Incidentally, some Congress leaders also adopted the slogans of the RSSBJP in issues like cow politics or Ram Mandir, he said.
He also alleged that the Congress failed to have electoral tie up with secular forces in many parts of the country.