‘They stand for an Islamic regime’: Pinarayi Vijayan says Priyanka Gandhi has Jamaat backing in Wayanad bypoll

The bypoll in Wayanad, set to be held on November 13, was necessitated after Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi decided to vacate the seat and retain Rae Bareli, the other seat he had won in the parliamentary elections in April this year.

At the campaign event on Wednesday, Vijayan said Jamaat-e-Islami Hind’s political wing, Welfare Party of India (WPI), “is a shield” for the organisation. The WPI had, earlier this week, extended its support to the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in the coming bypolls in the state.

Vijayan, who is a CPI(M) Politburo member, also mentioned Jamaat-e-Islami in Jammu and Kashmir, which is a separate entity to Jamaat-e-Islami Hind – the group that operates in other parts of India, including Kerala. The Jamaat-e-Islami entity in Jammu and Kashmir is banned under the UAPA.

Vijayan said the Jamaat in J&K had always been against elections, but in the recent Assembly polls in the Union Territory, “they have stood for BJP”.

“This time, they decided to contest in a few seats and finally, they concentrated on the seat where CPI(M) leader Tarigami is contesting. What is the reason? Tarigami should be defeated. BJP and extremists also desired that,” Vijayan claimed. Several Jamaat-backed Independents had contested the J&K elections.

“Sometimes, the Jamaat-e-Islami here (in Kerala) say that they are different from the one in J&K. But Jamaat has only one policy, which is the establishment of an Islamic world. They do not accept any type of democratic governance system. That is their ideology, and now they want to help the UDF (the Congress-led Opposition alliance in Kerala)… Through Jamaat-e-Islami, an extremist section is trying to gain influence in the Indian Union Muslim League (a UDF constituent),” he said.

Reacting to Vijayan’s remarks, the Kerala president of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, P Mujeeb Rahman, asked the CM to “explain why and when he changed his approach towards the organisation”.

“In the recent Lok Sabha elections, Jamaat had supported the CPI(M) in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Rajasthan. Why did the CPI(M) not reject our support? In Kerala, we have been supporting the CPI(M) in all elections since 2004. Till 2020, the CPI(M) ruled several local bodies with the support of the Welfare Party of India,” Rahman said.

He said Vijayan was looking for “a consolidation of majority vote banks”.

“This will help only the Sangh Parivar. From the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, we decided to support the Congress as it is the largest party strong enough to emerge as an anti-BJP force,” Rahman said.