Congress, IUML flay CPI(M) polit bureau member Vijayaraghavan for ‘attributing’ Gandhi’s back-to-back victories in the Wayanad to “fundamentalist” support

Controversy erupts as CPI(M) member accuses Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra of winning with fundamentalist votes.

On Sunday, the Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League flayed the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] polit bureau member A. Vijayaraghavan’s purported statement that “fundamentalist votes” had catalysed the back-to-back victories of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency.

Mr. Vijayaraghavan sparked controversy while inaugurating the CPI(M)‘s Wayanad district conference last week by stating that those at the vanguard of Ms. Vadra’s election rallies included “extreme elements espousing communalist agenda and terrorists”.

He also alleged that the “worst fundamentalist” groups helped catapult Mr Gandhi to victory in Wayanad. “Otherwise, how would both of them win?” he asked.

At a press conference at Indira Bhavan, the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee’s (KPCC) headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary K C Venugopal, MP, said Mr Vijayaraghavan’s views dovetailed with that of the Sangh Parivar. 

“The BJP appears to have contracted the CPI(M) to denigrate Mr Gandhi and Ms Vadra in Kerala. Mr Vijayaraghavan is pursuing the BJP’s communally divisive agenda in the State. However, the CPI(M) ‘s dangerous political gambit would come at a heavy political cost for the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF)“, he said. 

Mr Venugopal claimed that CPI(M) votes had flowed to the Congress in the Wayanad LS polls.