Veteran Congress leader and former Union Defence Minister AK Antony said today that his son, Anil K Antony, who is contesting as a BJP candidate in the Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha seat in Kerala, should not win the election.
Breaking his silence after a long gap, AK Antony said that his son "should lose, and his rival, the Congress candidate in the south Kerala constituency, Anto Antony, should win with an absolute majority".
The 83-year-old former Kerala Chief Minister said that he has put his health issues aside to address the media as he thought he has to come out and make his stand clear as this is an election to "safeguard the idea of India and its constitution." "It is a do-or-die battle," said AK Antony, who is also India's longest-serving Defence Minister.
He cited health issues as a reason for not traveling out of Thiruvananthapuram for campaigning for the Congress party and said that even if he did not go for campaigning in Pathanamthitta, Anto Antony would win with an absolute majority.
"For me, family and politics are different. This stance isn't new; I have maintained it since my days in KSU," Mr Antony said. The Kerala Students Union (KSU) is the student organisation of Congress in Kerala.
"The Congress is my religion", AK Antony said, reacting to repeated queries about his son's politics.
Sharply reacting to his father's remarks, Anil Antony said that the Congress has outdated leaders and only sympathises with his father, a former defense minister, for backing sitting MP and Congress member Anto Antony, who had recently stirred up controversy by making statements on the Pulwama terror attack.
Talking to reporters, Anil further stated that he himself will win in Pathanamthitta.
AK Antony's stand comes as a big boost to the Congress, as the party has been on the defensive after Anil and late Congress stalwart K Karunakaran's daughter, Padmaja Venugopal, switched over to the BJP in Kerala.
There were allegations from certain quarters of AK Antony's political opponents that Anil Antony had moved to the BJP with the silent blessings of his family, especially after a video of his mother, Elizabeth Antony, speaking at a church meeting where she said she knew her son would join the BJP surfaced.
In one of his lengthy press conferences post-COVID-19, Mr Antony took on the BJP and the Left Front government in Kerala, reiterating why people should rally behind the Congress to 'reinvent' India and to protect the spirit of the Indian Constitution.
"The party that rules at the Centre has been trying to destroy the very concept of India, and the important question is how to stop this danger," Mr Antony said.
He said the golden years of BJP in Kerala are already over, and the NDA will finish in the third place in all constituencies in the state.
"Please write this down and keep it. They will finish in the 3rd place in all constituencies in Kerala," Mr Antony said.
He said the golden era of BJP was during the 2019 General Elections due to the Sabarimala women's entry controversy, and they could garner some additional votes.
"This year, there is no factor that favors BJP, and they are going to get a reduced share of votes," Mr Antony said.
Taking a dig at Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Mr Antony said neither Vijayan nor his party has anything to do with the creation of India's Constitution, and the whole credit for its creation goes to the Indian National Congress and Dr Ambedkar.
"His party (Communist) claimed that the independence India got was not independence and called for an armed rebellion against the Nehru government through the Calcutta Thesis," Mr Antony alleged.
The "Calcutta Thesis" refers to a document formulated by the Communist Party of India (CPI) during its second congress held in Calcutta in 1948. This thesis advocated for a strategy of armed revolution against the Indian government led by Jawaharlal Nehru.
Mr Antony said it was the Constitution Committee with INC having a brutal majority that created the Constitution with the help of B R Ambedkar, and Pinarayi Vijayan has no right to criticise the Congress while calling for protecting the constitution.
He called on the people to vote for Congress to end the rule of Narendra Modi and the RSS.
"If BJP comes to power, the constitution of India will be sabotaged, and it would be the end of democracy. We need to put away that danger," Mr Antony said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
