Congress won't collapse in Kerala, Pinarayi likes to see BJP growth: K Muraleedharan

Congress leader K Muraleedharan
Congress leader K Muraleedharan

The Congress will not collapse in Kerala just because it lost the assembly polls, senior leader K Muraleedharan said on Wednesday.

Reacting to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's charges of BJP trading its votes with Congress, Muraleedharan said the CPM-led LDF has come ahead in the constituencies where the BJP's vote share dipped.

"The chief minister is worried about the fall in BJP's vote share. He doesn't want to see the BJP eliminated in Kerala," Muraleedharan said, alleging a CPM-BJP deal in the state polls.

He said the BJP will not grow in Kerala any more. "They have tried all the cards up their sleeve and all of them have failed," he said.

Muraleedharan said the consolidation of minority votes in favour of the LDF helped it retain power. "We were hoping to get the minority votes. It needs to be probed why the votes, that traditionally went to the UDF, consolidated in favour of the LDF.

About Nemom, where he took on BJP's Kummanam Rajasekharan and LDF's V Sivankutty, Muraleedharan said he performed his best in the constituency. BJP lost Nemom, the only seat the party had won in 2016, to Suivankutty this time. Muraleedharan could rise the Congress's votes to over 35,000 this time after the Congress-led UDF ended up in a distant third in 2016 with just 13,000-odd votes.

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