Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan | Photo Credit: ANI

New Delhi: Kerala church has urged its followers to vote for the Left parties in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as they had helped them. This comes after a church in the state issued a diktat telling priests to not take sides in the upcoming polls. In 2014 Lok Sabha elections a group affiliated to a church had actively supported the Left Democratic Front.

Reacting to this directive, CPI(M) leader Suneet Chopra said: “When Hindu organisations can talk about the attacks on Hindus then the church can also say that Christians should not vote for the BJP.” He, however, said that both the PM and the church should not bring up religion during polls.

BJP’s Tom Vadakkan, who had recently joined the saffron party after leaving Congress, called the move disturbing and said that it was a violation of Election Commission’s Model Code of Conduct.

As per the media reports, a bishop from Idukki had urged the priests to stay away from making any statements or conducting meetings to influence voters. Calling it inappropriate, the bishop said that it will affect the activities of the Church in the long run.

The letter reads that the people are intelligent enough to form their own opinions, therefore, the priests should refrain from taking sides.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, former Idukki Bishop Mar Mathew Anikkuzhikkatil supported Left-backed Independent Joice George, who won by a huge margin of over 50,000 votes.

The Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) has also issued guidelines for priests.

Church holds sway in Kerala that’s why all the major political parties in the state seek guidance and support from the church leaders.

Meanwhile, Congress president Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination from the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat after which he will fly to Nagpur in Maharashtra to address a rally.

The Kerala Congress requested Gandhi to contest from the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency which was lying vacant after the death of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) working president MI Shanavas last year.

Apart from Wayanad, Gandhi is also contesting from the family bastion of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh where his challenger is Union Minister Smriti Irani.

Congress is contesting on 16 out of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala leaving four seats for its allies - two for Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and one each for Kerala Congress (Mani) and Socialist Party (RSP), ANI reported.