Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has no doubt that the CPM and the BJP will “gang up” against Congress as they had done earlier and because they are united on a common objective of reducing the Congress-led UPA tally in Lok Sabha.
At the Cabinet briefing, Chandy said the Left and the BJP shared a history of alliances. In 1977, CPM joined hands with erstwhile Jan Sangh in the name of opposing the Emergency and in 1989 they came together to support V P Singh Government from outside.
Chandy said that during National Front Government, CPM and BJP leaders used to sit across the table daily to discuss strategies. BJP is not going to win a single seat in Kerala so their main agenda will be to reduce seats of Congress and UDF. Even the CPM wants to lessen our seats. So both have a common agenda,’’ said Chandy, adding that the two parties would come together yet again for 2014 LS polls.
Despite the Left’s visceral opposition to BJP, there have been occasions even after 1990 when the rivals had shared the dais. In September 2012, then BJP president Nitin Gadkari shared the dais with CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury at a Confederation of All India Traders (CIAT) rally against FDI in multi-brand retail.
In December 201, politburo member Brinda Karat, CPI veteran A B Bardhan and BJP leader Arun Jaitley shared a platform to support Anna Hazare.
Left parties have maintained that too much should not be read into their leaders’ sharing dais with BJP on specific issues.
