Shah scoffs at Congress's poles-apart allies - Sena & IUML; asks "What's your direction?"

Lashing out at Congress, ex-BJP chief Amit Shah on Sunday, pointed out that the grand old party had allied with communists in Bengal, but is fighting them in Kerala, while addressing the concluding 'Vijaya Yatra' in Thiruvananthapuram. Stating that CPI is linked with SDPI & PFI and Congress has allied with Muslim League, Shah alleged that both parties only cared about their 'vote banks'. Kerala goes to polls on 6th April and the counting of votes on 2nd May.

Rahul & Priyanka Gandhi to miss Cong-Left Bengal rally to avoid 'wrong signals' in Kerala

Amit Shah: 'What is your direction?'

Shah further pointed that Congress had allied with the 'Muslim League' in Kerala, the 'Furfura Sharif' in Bengal and the Hindutva-based 'Shiv Sena' in Maharashtra. He said, "Congress is fighting in alliance with communists in West Bengal and here, they are fighting against them. In Kerala, Congress has allied with Muslim League; in West Bengal, they have allied with Furfura Sharif, & in Maharashtra, they are with Shiv Sena. What is your direction?"

After declaring 'Metro Man' Sreedharan as BJP’s Kerala CM pick; MoS Muraleedharan retracts

Congress-Left alliance

Recently, the Congress-Left alliance have had seat-sharing talks for all 294 seats in Bengal Assembly, deciding that Congress will fight on 92 seats, the Left will fight in 101 and Furfura Sharif Dargah chief Pirzada Abbas Siddiqui's ISF will fight on 30 seats. Congress has faced a backlash from its own 'G-23' leaders who have slammed its alliance with ISF calling it 'communal'. While AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has announced his support to Siddiqui, Congress has refused to ally with AIMIM.

Left scoffs at Oppn's 'crocodile tears for fisherfolk'; points to Cong govt's decisions

In Kerala, the Congress-led UDF is the main contender to the Left-led LDF. Kicking off its 'Aishwarya Kerala Yatra', Congress leader  Ramesh Chennithala has vowed to bring legislation to protect the rights of the Ayyappa devotees when the UDF is voted to power.  Rahul Gandhi has also visited the state multiple times, campaigning for UDF. Congress has repeatedly called for CM Pinarayi Vijayan's resignation over a host of issues - Gold smuggling probe, Sandalwood probe, COVID handling, Sabarimala issue, Sprinklr row, Police social media order etc.

Ramesh Jarkiholi reportedly offers resignation amid probe over alleged sex-CD scandal

BJP's Kerala push

Aiming to conquer the final southern frontier, BJP  has lined up its top national leaders to be part of Vijaya Yatra from February 21 to March 7. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath flagged off the party's rally at Kasargode in North Kerala on February 21 - kicking off 14 rallies and over 80 meetings, concluding at Thiruvananthapuram. The Yatra has seen top BJP leaders like Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways, V K Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Shahnawaz Hussein, Khushbu Sundar, Smriti Irani, Tejasvi Surya, Meenakshi Lekhi, K Annamalai, with Home Minister Amit Shah concluding the poll rally at Thiruvananthapuram. While BJP has no footprint in Kerala, there is an intense poll battle between the Left (LDF) and Congress (UDF).