india

Updated: May 07, 2019 23:49 IST

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre was on its last legs and regional parties would play a key role in forming the next government.

Vijayan told reporters in the state capital that the mood of the nation seemed to favour a non-BJP, non-Congress government at the Centre and regional parties would play a decisive role in such a dispensation taking office after the seven-phase general election ends on May 19.

Counting of votes will start on May 23.

He said he had discussed this issue with his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhara Rao, also known as KCR, who is on a two-day visit to the state ruled by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI (M).

“The meeting with KCR was significant. We discussed national politics. He also felt that both fronts [BJP and Congress] will not get {a} majority. So the regional parties will play a prominent role. But we did not discuss about the PM candidate or other issues,” he said, adding that both the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party will fall short of the numbers to form the next government .

Vijayan had an hour-long meeting with KCR on Monday. This is the first in the series of meetings KCR has planned in the next five days.

There are 123 Lok Sabha seats in the five southern states and regional leaders like Rao are eyeing these numbers, according to CPI(M) leaders.

“The Bharatiya Janata Party government is in its final days. A new government which is committed to uphold secular values and federal polity of the country will come to power. All regional powers will support such a dispensation. Let us wait for results,” Vijayan said. He alleged that the BJP-led government at the Centre had victimised opposition-ruled states, and Kerala was an example. “We have seen several instances where the central government had caused much harm to the states. The Centre should not take decisions that harm the state. During Ockhi cyclone [in 2017], Nipah (virus) outbreak and worst flood of the century [in 2018], we suffered it badly,” he said.

The Kerala CM also accused the BJP of trying to stall a national highway project in the state. Citing BJP state president P S Sreedharan Pillai’s letter to Union minister of road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari, Vijayan said, “It was really shocking he [Pillai] sent such a letter to Union minister [Nitin] Gadkari when the state was going ahead with land acquisition process with full steam.”

Pillai dismissed the charges, saying he had just forwarded a letter submitted by people who had to forfeit their land and houses because of the widening of the national highway project.

Commenting of the meeting between K Chandrasekhara Rao and Pinarayi Vijayan, senior journalist and political observer Sunnykutty Abraham said, “It seems K Chandrasekhara Rao is eager to don the role of a king maker and wants to outwit his rival Chandrababu Naidu. If some of the regional players like him sniff some chances they can’t be blamed” said