For Shashi Tharoor, Congress-Left alliance in Bengal is to fight 'devil' Trinamool, in Kerala CPM a 'menace'

New Delhi: Ahead of Kerala Assembly Election Results 2016, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor admitted that the alliance formed by the Bharatiya Janata Party and Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) of SNDP leader Vellapally Natesan is an unpredictable alliance, and if it is able to increase its vote share, then it would certainly have more than a marginal impact on the poll results.

Speaking exclusively to News18, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "child death ratio among Scheduled Tribes in Kerala is scarier than even Somalia" comments have done certain amount of damage to the BJP and the central ministers campaigning for the Kerala Assembly polls have found hard to defend it.

“The PM who is the star campaigner of the BJP should have apologised for his comments,” he opined, adding that it was bad politics to compare Kerala with Somalia as the southern state ranks highest in Human Development Index in the country.

Speaking his heart on the Congress-Left alliance in West Bengal, the former union minister said, “As a party certain circumstances happened where the workers in Bengal demanded this and the leadership got dragged along in the process. I can assure it wasn't a top down decision, especially given the 34 years of persecution to which the Communists subjected us to in Bengal.”

“I have seen Congress-Communists dynamics in Bengal. What got changed somehow was sense of betrayal and tormenting by Trinamool Congress workers after joint victory five years ago.”

“The Lumpen elements the 'goondas' of Left were actually picked up by the TMC and they ended up arousing the hatred of the Congress workers, who said they will ally with the devil if necessary in order to get rid of the Trinamool government...And I think the leadership swept along with it. I see it as a short term tactical event. Even CPIM leadership has gone out of its way to say it is not an alliance in the form of sense,” Tharoor maintained.

In Kerala, my message is ambiguous that CPM is a menace to the society, it believes in politics of violence.

The Congress MP was all praise for Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who is also United Democratic Front's most credible face for the ongoing polls.

He said while late Kannoth Karunakaran was the most able administrator, but as a politician it's difficult to imagine anybody matching Chandy. The Kerala CM has eclipsed his predecessors – even stalwarts like AK Antony.