CPI(M) on the back foot as its 1977 alliance with Jan Sangh resurfaces

Polling officials receive electoral material at a polling centre on the eve of the Nilambur Assembly byelection at Chungathara Mar Thoma Higher Secondary School on June 18.

A new controversy erupted on the eve of the Nilambur Assembly byelection on Wednesday over an alliance between the CPI(M) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in the late 1970s.

An alleged revelation by CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan during a media interview about the alliance put the LDF on the defensive with the rival United Democratic Front (UDF) seizing the opportunity to capitalise on the dispute.

The volatile political rivalry between the UDF and LDF turned more intense on the election eve when both sides sharpened their accusations over allying with communal forces.

Former BJP president K. Raman Pillai validated Mr. Govindan’s statement that the CPI(M) had contested the 1977 election with the support of the RSS. Mr. Pillai told a TV channel that the CPI(M) had gleefully accepted the RSS support in the wake of the Emergency.

The dispute put the LDF on the back foot in Nilambur at a time when it kept on attacking the UDF for taking the support of the Jamaat-e-Islami. In an attempt to turn the table, UDF candidate Aryadan Shoukath said that there could be more such alliances during elections in future.

Mr. Shoukath said he suspected a tacit understanding between the CPI(M) and the BJP in Nilambur. “I suspect 100% the chances of an alliance between the CPI(M) and the BJP,” he said.

LDF candidate M. Swaraj rejected Mr. Govindan’s revelation and asserted that the CPI(M) had never cooperated with the RSS. He said the Left had cooperated with the Janata Party, which comprised groups with different views, against the Congress in the wake of the Emergency.

Mr. Swaraj said that CPI(M) ideologue E.M.S. Namboodiripad had openly rejected the votes of the RSS. He alleged that it was the Congress which made an alliance with the Janata Party backed by the RSS.

Mr. Swaraj also alleged that the Congress had fielded RSS leaders such as O. Rajagopal and K.G. Marar as its candidates in the State.

CPI State secretary Binoy Viswam too rejected Mr. Govindan’s revelation, saying that the Left had nothing to do with the RSS, which was the face of majority communalism.

According to Mr. Raman Pillai, the CPI(M) and RSS drifted away after 1977.

Meanwhile, the BJP said here that both the UDF and LDF were resorting to allegations about the RSS to divert attention from the key developmental issues in Nilambur.