Senior Congress leader K Muraleedharan has come up with a strong allegation against the CPI-M stating that his party received reports on left party’s cross-voting in favour of the BJP in several places in Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency.
Speaking to a Malayalam news channel on Wednesday, Muraleedharan, who is the Congress candidate for the Thrissur constituency, said the cross-voting of CPI-M cadres in favour of the BJP candidate took place on a large scale in Guruvayur and Nattika assembly segments of the constituency. He, however, said this would not affect the chances of the UDF.
He said the LDF’s vote share would decline in its strongholds in Thrissur while the BJP would get a major push with it.
Muraleedharan expressed doubt over LDF convener EP Jayarajan’s role in the alleged cross-voting. “EP Jayarajan may have agreed with BJP Kerala prabhari Prakash Javadekar to divert CPI-M’s votes to BJP during their controversial meeting,” the senior Congress leader said.
Other than Thrissur, CPI-M and BJP leaders entered the deal for cross-voting in other constituencies too, he alleged.
Unlike in the previous polls, no clashes were reported between BJP and CPI-M activists, they worked in harmony this time, he said.
The Thrissur Lok Sabha seat witnessed a fierce triangular fight between Congress’ K Muraleedharan, LDF’s VS Sunil Kumar and BJP’s Suresh Gopi.