CPM's ads aimed to divide people, help BJP in polls: Kunhalikutty

Kozhikode: CPM published the communal advertisement in newspapers run by Muslim managements ahead of Palakkad bypoll with the aim to communally divide the people and thereby enable BJP win the elections, alleged IUML national general secretary PK Kunhalikutty on Wednesday.

"They published the communal advertisement with the calculation that if at least some minority votes won't go to Congress then it would be beneficial for BJP," Kunhalikutty said. It was with the same motive that chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan criticized IUML state president Panakkad Sadikkali Shihab Thangal, he said.

The CM also has the intention of deflecting attention from Thangal's initiative to resolve the Munambam waqf land issue which had been well received by the people and media, he added. "Shihab Thangal intervened to resolve an issue in which state govt had failed. It is to deflect attention from it that the allegations over Jamaat-e-Islami have been raked up," said Kunhalikutty. It was CPM which had electoral alliances with the Jamaat-e-Islami in the past, he said.

"Both the newspaper advertisements and remarks against Thangal were done with the Palakkad assembly byelection in mind and aimed to help BJP by targeting minorities," he added.

He said that bypoll results will show that the actions were to help BJP, which will secure the second position, and LDF will be relegated to the third position.