Kerala Assembly polls: Pinarayi Vijayan slams ‘Congress-BJP nexus’ over G. Sudhakaran’s rebel bid in Ambalappuzha

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s campaign foray into Alappuzha on Wednesday (April 1, 2026) opened with a broadside against the dissident Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] veteran G. Sudhakaran, whose candidature as a Congress-backed Independent in the Ambalappuzha constituency poses a challenge to the Left Democratic Front’s (LDF) in some measure in the key central Kerala district.

Mr. Vijayan cast Mr. Sudhakaran’s candidature as “a stark example of the convergence of the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s transactional political lines.” He said the “Congress-BJP gambit” to back Mr. Sudhakaran, despite dissension within the respective parties, belied the UDF’s charges about a CPI(M)-BJP “deal” in Kerala.

Mr. Vijayan noted that Mr. Sudhakaran had pointedly claimed last week that he would secure “5,000 BJP votes.” Mr. Sudhakaran had also posited that “not all BJP workers are Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) supporters.”

‘Sudhakaran walking a tightrope’

Mr. Vijayan stated that Mr. Sudhakaran was “walking a tightrope” between the Congress and the BJP, and could “fall into either camp” as the dice rolled.

Mr. Vijayan said Mr. Sudhakaran appeared compelled to “prove his worth to his newfound backers.” He said “political neo-converts” and defectors often showed more zeal in attacking their erstwhile parties as “a rite of passage.”

“The CPI(M) can understand Mr. Sudhakaran’s predicament. He has to repeatedly prove his usefulness and loyalty to the Congress and the BJP by tarnishing his erstwhile comrades”, he said. 

Mr. Sudhakaran had recently upped the ante in the acrimonious dispute with his erstwhile party by attacking the CPI(M)’s district leadership, chiefly Minister for Culture Saji Cherian. He also took potshots at Mr. Vijayan. Notably, Mr. Sudhakaran dared Mr. Vijayan to contest from Ambalappuzha rather than “hedge against electoral defeat by choosing a safe constituency” in Kannur. 

Mr. Sudhakaran’s avowal to defeat Agriculture Minister and Communist Party of India (CPI) leader P. Prasad in Cherthala has also, in some measure, convulsed the LDF’s campaign in the district.

Mr. Vijayan also appeared to draw on the past to allay the LDF’s concerns in Alappuzha. He said the CPI(M) had faced upheavals in Alappuzha in the past and emerged unscathed, possibly in an oblique reference to factional issues the party battled in 1994 (K.R. Gowri) and 1996-2009 (late Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan).

Mr. Vijayan said Alappuzha has “always chosen the party over the individual.”

“Personality cult-oriented politics has scarce standing among a people who uphold the enduring legacy and revolutionary zeal of the Punnapra-Vayalar agrarian uprising against colonial rule, serfdom and feudalism”, he said.