Kerala CM rejects resignation call over LS poll defeat

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday said that the LDF’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha election was not due to anti-incumbency. Rejecting the Opposition’s demand for his resignation, the CM said that the election verdict was not against the government or LDF but it was the after-effect of people’s desire to keep BJP away from power.

The CM said there was no logic in the Opposition’s comparison with former CM AK Antony’s case. He said the resignation of Antony, after a Lok Sabha poll debacle of the Congress, was a different story. “Antony resigned not because of the LS polls but due to internal issues of the Congress,” he said while replying to the discussion over the demand for grants in the assembly.

The CM said the Congress party’s win in LS poll was due to a peculiar situation. “A section of people did not want BJP returning to power. They voted for Congress because they thought that party could form an alternative government. These people did not have any displeasure towards the CPM,” he said.

The Congress party which alleges anti-incumbency behind the LS poll result is exploiting the situation for temporary political gains. People are not against the state government, he said.

The CM asked whether the chief ministers in Congress-ruled states would resign in the backdrop of their party’s poor performance in the general election. The Congress party had 40 of the 68 assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh. But the party did not get a single seat in the Lok Sabha election. In 2023, Congress government came to power in Karnataka by winning 135 seats. But the party could not win 19 of the 28 LS seats. In Congress-ruled Telangana, 8 of the 11 seats were won by the BJP,” he said.