Bengaluru: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday came down heavily on the Congress, while addressing a rally in Karnataka’s Bengaluru, after banned radical outfit Popular Front of India's political arm Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) extended its support to the Congress-led United Democratic Front in Kerala. Amit Shah, apparently referring to the recent blast at Bengaluru’s popular eatery ‘Rameshwaram Cafe’, accused the Grand old party of taking support from the SDPI saying that the Congress has taken support even as blasts are taking place in Bengaluru.

Senior BJP leader Shah, while addressing a road show in Karnataka’s Ramanagara, which is part of the Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha Constituency, stated, “On one hand there are blasts in Bengaluru, on the other hand, I just got the news that SDPI has supported Congress. If this is true then can the people of Karnataka remain safe under the Congress government?”

SDPI reportedly extended its support to Congress-led UDF in Kerala

Former-BJP president Amit Shah lashed the Congress party days after the SDPI extended support to the Congress-led UDF in Kerala.

Earlier, the SDPI Kerala unit president had stated to news agency PTI, “Our Constitution is being challenged. The BJP is bringing in laws to provide citizenship on the basis of religion. Uniform Civil Code is planned, which will affect the diversity of the country. We will support the Congress-led UDF which is fighting the BJP at the national level,”

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader VD Satheesan stated that his party has not held any talks or reached an understanding with the SDPI, saying, “There are a lot of organisations that are supporting the UDF in its fight against fascism.”

Kerala BJP chief K Surendran, who is contesting against Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad, had hit out at the Congress. “Now the SDPI has openly declared support for the Congress party in all 20 constituencies. We all know why the PFI was banned. Such a party has declared support to the Congress,” he said.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the SDPI contested 10 seats in Kerala independently and polled just 80,111 votes or 0.4% of the total vote-share.

In 2022, the Narendra Modi government had banned PFI and its associates as unlawful organisations for a period of five years. "There had been a number of instances of international linkages of PFI with Global Terrorist Groups and some activists of the PFI have joined Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and participated in terror activities in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan," the government had said in its notification.