BJP, allies seeking votes in Lord Ram's name 'to create religious polarisation ahead of Lok Sabha elections', claims Sitaram Yechury

Agartala: The BJP and its allies are now seeking votes in Lord Ram’s name, inciting religious sentiments, creating Hindu-Muslim divide, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said on Sunday, adding that his party aims to defeat their divisive politics and set up a secular state. “The BJP and its partners are now seeking votes in the name of ‘Ram’,” the Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary said while addressing the party’s state conference in Agartala in Tripura. “The agitation against the Supreme Court verdict on Sabarimala temple in Kerala and launching of ‘Shri Ramayana Express’ from Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh to Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu are part of a game plan of the BJP and RSS to create communal and religious polarisation ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.” [caption id=“attachment_3815159” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Sitaram Yechury. PTI[/caption] The Bharatiya Janata Party and its partners ahead of the next year’s general elections are “inciting the religious sentiments, creating Hindu-Muslim and ethnic divisions”, he added. Yechury said that the CPM has been campaigning with three missions — defeat BJP, broaden and strengthen the Left movement and to set up a secular government. The CPM general secretary urged the Narendra Modi led government to bring back the Rs 12 lakh crore money, according to him, looted by the absconding millionaires and others and to spend the cash for the development of the country. He also asked him to provide quality health services and education besides creating jobs for the youths. “Modi (Narendra Modi)-Shah (Amit Shah) group is running the country. Our efforts will be to consolidate the anti-BJP votes and to broaden the alternative politics before the next general elections,” the CPM party chief said. Earlier addressing the opening session, Tripura CPM secretary Bijan Dhar said that since the BJP led government came to power in Tripura in March, its workers and goons carried over 5,000 attacks on the Left and other opposition parties’ — their houses, business establishments and other assets. “There is no democracy in Tripura now under the BJP governance. People’s freedom curtailed, no free expression of opinion allowed and democratic rights are slashed,” the CPM leader alleged. Dhar said the 22nd state conference, was reduced to a two-day affair instead of three days and there would be no open rally for the first time in view of the “prevailing abnormal situation due to state-wide political violence and atrocities by the ruling BJP workers and their gangsters”.