Kasaragod: The anti-government sentiment in Kerala has grown so intense that not just UDF supporters but even “genuine communists” do not want a third Pinarayi Vijayan government, Congress general secretary K C Venugopal said on Friday.

Venugopal was speaking after inaugurating the UDF’s statewide election campaign, 'Puthuyuga Yatra' (Journey for a New Era), led by Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan, at Kumbla in the Manjeshwar Assembly segment.

Taking a dig at the Chief Minister’s claim that the Left government had achieved the “impossible” over the past decade, Venugopal said the only such “achievement” during its tenure was the gold heist at Sabarimala. He said people were exhausted under Left rule, and that unemployed youth -- disillusioned and desperate -- were keen to leave the State at the earliest.

Accusing the CPM of masking governance failures through propaganda, Venugopal said the party remained unwilling to abandon what he described as a politics of violence that claimed the lives of Sharathlal P K, Kripesh and T P Chandrasekharan. He alleged that the party was not only silencing political opponents but also isolating and eliminating its own members who spoke the truth.

Referring to the expulsion of Payyannur whistleblower V Kunhikrishnan for exposing corruption within the party, Venugopal said the response from the grassroots told a different story. “Hundreds of CPM workers from across the state flocked to Payyannur for the launch of Kunhikrishnan’s book,” he said.

Venugopal said the margin secured by Kasaragod MP Rajmohan Unnithan in the 2024 Lok Sabha election had shocked him. “Disillusioned by the LDF’s failures, even CPM workers tasked with bogus voting chose the UDF in traditional Left strongholds,” he claimed.

Drawing a parallel with West Bengal, he said the Communist Party there collapsed when arrogance of power drove senior leaders to abandon the party’s ideals and crush dissent, a process that eventually turned CPM offices into BJP offices. Those who do not want a similar fate for Kerala, he said, would not vote for the LDF this time.

Deputy Leader of Opposition P K Kunhalikutty said wild elephants were now entering human habitations “like goats entering a market”, adding that such incidents had ceased to even make news. He alleged that the LDF was so short of supporters for its march that it had to rely on migrant workers. “They have not a single project to show for the past ten years,” he said. While many things could be forgiven, the theft of Ayyappa’s gold could not, Kunhalikutty said. The UDF, which had won the “semi-final” in the local body elections, would return with the cup after winning the “final”, he added.

Former Congress state president K Muraleedharan said Kerala was being ruled by a government cursed by the people, martyrs and gods alike, and one that could “lose its breath at any moment”. He alleged that the CPM had looted across sectors and that even funds raised in the name of martyrs were pocketed by party leaders. The CPM-BJP nexus, he said, would be buried in Kerala’s secular soil.

RSP leader and Kollam MP N K Premachandran accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of seeking a third term by fanning majority communalism through aggressive anti-Muslim propaganda. The UDF, he said, would return to power with no fewer than 100 seats to reclaim Kerala’s lost secularism.

Congress state president Sunny Joseph said the results of the Assembly by-elections and local body polls were a clear reflection of public anger against the State government.