Thiruvananthapuram, May 5 (IANS) A day after the CPM-led LDF’s defeat in the Kerala Assembly polls, state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Tuesday criticised the CPM, saying that the Marxist ideology is “outdated”. He attributed the Left alliance’s defeat to not having an economic vision for the state.

The BJP won three seats out of the 140 Assembly constituencies, with the state party chief himself emerging victorious from Nemom.

During an interaction with IANS, Chandrasekhar compared the CPM’s fate in Kerala to the party’s track record in Tripura and West Bengal.

He said, “The story of the CPM that is playing out in Kerala is what has happened in Tripura and in West Bengal. The Marxist ideology is an outdated ideology. It does not have an economic vision.”

He further said that the Marxist ideology is unable to create jobs.

“You see all around the world, whether it’s Russia, whether it’s China, whether it is Vietnam, all of these countries were original Marxist countries, but they’ve all embraced free markets and capitalism and private sector investments and private enterprise and entrepreneurship,” he said

Chandrasekhar alleged that the CPM in Kerala, which was its last government in the country, has been a party “without any vision” for the state and the people here had to “suffer” for the last 10 years.

“All they gave were corruption, appeasement, and exploitation of temples, so the people decided to throw them out.”

According to the Kerala BJP chief, there was a very strong “anti-CPM wave” in the state, which, he said, benefited the principal Opposition party, the Congress.

The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) gained a decisive victory in the Kerala polls, with 102 seats.

However, Chandrasekhar said, “We have withstood this wave and the momentum that the Congress has got, and we have elected three MLAs to the Assembly.”

He credited the BJP workers for the party’s victory in the three seats. Notably, it is the first time that the BJP has won three seats in Kerala.

Terming the polls as “historic”, he said: “Three MLAs have won, and they’re going to the Assembly. But most important for all of us are the party workers who have made all these wins possible.”

“It is the sheer hard work of hundreds and thousands of our party workers,” he reiterated.

–IANS

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