Chennai, Mar 24 (IANS): The two Communist parties, CPI-M and CPI are in a political alliance with the Congress in Tamil Nadu, but in Kerala they are the main political adversaries. The permutation and combination of alliance politics is throwing up challenges for both.
While posters of Kanyakumari Lok Sabha candidate Vijay Vasanthakumar and Nagercoil Assembly candidates have their posters with the photographs of a beaming Rahul Gandhi and Sitaram Yechury, but just a step away at the Kaliyakkavilai transport check post inside Kerala the scene is different. Here the Left and the Congress are engaged in a fierce political battle.
BJP leader and party candidate from Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat Pon Radhakrishnan while speaking to IANS said, "This is the duplicity of these parties, both CPI-M and CPI are national parties and so is the Congress. Across the border they are fighting against each other but here they are all friends, ideology doesn't matter."
Interestingly, the Communist parties have also conducted public campaigns for the Congress candidate Vijay Vasanthakumar for the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat.
M. Mariyappan, CPI-M local secretary at Kaliyakkavilai in Tamil Nadu told IANS said, "We are fighting against the fasict government of Narendra Modi and the BJP and all secular democratic parties will have to weed this government out."
When asked on the fight against the Congress just step away in Kerala, Mariappan said, "In Kerala, the CPI-M is fighting against the Congress, and BJP is not a force to reckon with. We want to defeat the Congress in Kerala but we have aligned with the DMK in Tamil Nadu and Congress is part of that alliance."
While the CPI-M leaders do not have a proper answer on this, both the parties want to somehow stay afloat in power, say political commentators.
At the Palakkad border also in the Valayar checkpost, there is a strong fight between the AIADMK-BJP and the DMK-Congress-CPI-CPM alliance candidate. But, inside the Kerala border, the CPI-M is engaged in a bitter battle with the Congress.