Kochi: The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI)’s celebration of the Congress’ victory in the Palakkad assembly bypoll should be a warning to secular Kerala, CPM leader and Minister for Local Self Governments M B Rajesh said in Kochi on Monday.

Rajesh, who spearheaded the CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) campaign in Palakkad, reiterated the allegation that Congress won the bypoll with the support of SDPI, criticised for its radical Islamic views.

Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate Rahul Mamkoottathil won the bypoll with a record margin of 18,840 votes, defeating BJP’s C Krishnkumar and CPM-backed independent Dr P Sarin.

“UDF leaders, including the candidate, were not ready to say that they don’t need SDPI’s votes even when they were repeatedly asked about it. Videos of how they struggled to answer the question are viral. It was shocking that SDPI was the first to hit the streets celebrating the UDF win. It’s a warning to secular Kerala. No UDF leader is ready to counter the SDPI, claiming victory. They should come out, and at least they say it’s their victory,” Rajesh told reporters in Kochi.

He also rubbished Congress leader V D Satheesan’s criticism that the CPM had long enjoyed the support of Jamaat-e-Islami. “CPM has never held any discussion with Jamaat-e-Islami,” he said.

On Satheesan’s criticism that a Desabhimani editorial had endorsed Jamaat-e-Islami’s support in 1996, Rajesh said the claim was wrong, and the editorial had clearly said that Jamaat-e-Islami looks into every issue in the world through a religious lens. He said the CPM had opposed the RSS and Jamaat-e-Islami equally.

Responding to the CPM’s criticism, Satheesan had said that the CPM was speaking in BJP’s tongue. “Why is the CPM so worried about the dip in BJP’s vote share? The BJP’s vote this time came down to 39,000 from the 50,000 polled when it fielded E Sreedharan in Palakkad (in 2021).

“There is a significant fall in the BJP’s vote share. A significant number of votes polled by Sreedharan came to Rahul Mamkoottathil this time. How can it be SDPI’s votes? Can we say that Sreendharan got votes from SDPI and Jamaat-e-Islami?” Satheesan asked.