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

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan criticizes G. Sudhakaran's UDF-backed candidacy, highlighting Congress-BJP political convergence in upcoming assembly polls.

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.”

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.