Thiruvananthapuram, May 5 (IANS): Congress Lok Sabha member K. Muraleedharan who contested the Nemom assembly seat in the capital district, said here on Wednesday, he is proud that it was due to his party's efforts that the BJP could not open its account in Kerala.

Muraleedharan, son of legendary Congress leader K. Karunakaran was drafted to contest the assembly polls after widespread canards were spread by the ruling Left that it was the Congress which helped BJP open its account in 2016 when BJP veteran O. Rajagopal won the Nemom seat defeating V. Sivankutty of the CPI-M by less than 9,000 votes and the ally of the Congress, V. Surendran Pillai came a dismal third with just around 13,000 votes.

"Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has now gone to town saying that the Congress and the BJP are hand in glove and if that was the case, the CPI-M would not have won from Nemom this time. But the truth is had I not got above 30,000 votes, BJP candidate would have won and since I secured this many votes, the CPI-M candidate won with a margin of 3,949 votes," said Muraleedharan.

"All the truths have now come out the BDJS- the second biggest ally of the BJP-led NDA has been silent and just see their total tally of votes in the state. In the 2016 polls they secured over 4 per cent votes and this time it has fallen below 2 per cent. Moreover, we did not get the support of the minority communities. All of us heard the Social Democratic Party of India (the political outfit of the Popular Front of India) stating that they had given their votes to the Left at Nemom," added Muraleedharan.

He said his party would sit down and discuss and debate the poll debacle which saw the Vijayan government retain power and the Congress was left to bite the dust.

The Congress led UDF saw its tally came down from 47 in 2016 to 41 in 2021.

"The final outcome that has emerged after the polls here is that it has now become evidently clear that the CPI-M's only agenda was to see the back of the Congress and for that they effectively used the BJP. To cover up all that Vijayan is spreading canards that it was we who had the deal with the BJP. Time will prove everything and none should forget West Bengal which they ruled for over three decades is not there anymore and in the recent elections they were with us," added Muraleedharan.