Pinarayi Vijayan criticised the Congress after its defeat in three state polls
In a strong criticism of the Congress, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said that the grand old party's "greed and lust for power" were the reasons for its defeat in the Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh assembly elections.
Mr Vijayan said that the Congress thought it was competent to win against the BJP on its own and, therefore, did not join forces with the other INDIA alliance parties in these states to present a united front against the saffron party.
"Had they joined hands with the other parties, this would not have been the result. They were greedy and lusted for power. They wanted it all for themselves. That is what led to this situation in those states.
"If everyone was together, the result would have been an entirely different one," the Kerala CM said at a press briefing here.
Mr Vijayan was responding to queries on what led to the resounding poll defeat of Congress in the three states, two of which -- Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh -- were ruled by the grand old party.
He said that in Madhya Pradesh, Congress leader Kamal Nath's stand against joining forces with Samajwadi Party (SP), which had influence in some areas of that state, led to the defeat of the Congress there.
Mr Vijayan said that veteran Congress leader Digvijaya Singh had offered to share seats with the SP, but Mr Nath was against the same and in such a situation, the party leadership ought to have intervened.
"They did not intervene even after SP chief Akhilesh Yadav lashed out in an explosive manner," he said.
In Rajasthan too, the same thing happened with the Congress declining to work together with other secular parties, including the CPI(M), there, he claimed.
This also led to CPI(M) losing two of the seats earlier held by it, albeit by small margins, he said.
"If they had joined forces with us, it would not have happened," the CM said.
On being asked whether the Left party needed the Congress to win, Mr Vijayan said the issue was not whether CPI(M) needed the grand old party.
"The issue was to defeat the BJP. For that, we all needed to be united," he said.
The Congress going at it alone in Chhattisgarh was also the reason for its loss there, he claimed.
Mr Vijayan also said that Mr Nath, during the poll campaign, made some allegedly non-secular statements which also contributed to the Congress' loss in Madhya Pradesh.
"He came to the forefront as a Hanuman sewak. The message it sent out was troublesome. What was the idea or intent of his statements? He himself led the way to becoming the B team of the BJP. The Congress leadership also did not do anything to rectify or prevent it. They tried to be a part of it," he alleged.
The Kerala CM had on Sunday also said that the poll outcome in the three Hindi heartland states was the result of the Congress going at it alone.
The CPI(M), a part of the INDIA alliance, had also alleged that "infighting" within the grand old party, "hunger for power" and some of its leader's working as "undercover agents of the BJP", all led to its loss in the assembly polls in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
The BJP had a day ago swept Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and inflicted a resounding defeat on the Congress to tighten its stranglehold in the Hindi heartland, in a big boost for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and setting the tone for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
In some consolation for the Congress in the face of the saffron wave, after it lost Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the party ousted the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana to make it 3-1 for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the latest round of Assembly elections billed as a semi-final before next year's poll showdown.