Congress President Rahul Gandhi today went all guns blazing against the Communist Party of India(M) in a rally held in Kerala’s Kozhikode. Rahul Gandhi alleged that the ideology of CPM has now become ‘defunct’ and that CPM members should realise that they are now ‘grasping at straws’.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi in Kozhikode, Kerala: I think it is going to take some more time for the CPM to realise that their ideology is defunct. They are grasping at straws. pic.twitter.com/z5gPOoVauK — ANI (@ANI) March 14, 2019

Training his guns at the CPM, Rahul Gandhi asserted that CPM has been using violence as an instrument of its state policy to repress dissent. Rahul claimed that the CPM is only capable of unleashing violence, while when it came to offering aide during the Kerala floods, the CPM was conspicuously incompetent in helping the flood victims. Rahul further added that CPM is disconnected with the ground reality and that it will take them some time to realise that their fossilised ideology is no longer bought by the people of Kerala.

R Gandhi in Kozhikode, Kerala: I want to ask CPM where they were when Kerala was facing floods? I want to ask CPM what they did for the 10000 families affected by floods. The only thing CPM is capable of doing is acting violently. When it comes to job creating, CPM has no answer. pic.twitter.com/INBydBaGn9 — ANI (@ANI) March 14, 2019

However, if the reports are to be believed, Congress is trying to stitch an alliance with CPM party in West Bengal. With the dispute over the Lok Sabha seats in Raigadh and Murshidabad settling in favour of CPM, it is widely believed that agreement between Congress and CPM for an alliance may be formally declared in the coming few days. Last month, Kerala Congress Unit President Mullapally Ramachandran talked about mutual understanding reached between Congress and CPM to dent BJP’s chances of making inroads in the southern state in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Thus, when Rahul Gandhi attacks CPM in Kerala, one cannot help but wonder what his true intentions are. On one hand, Rahul Gandhi continues his diatribes against CPM, whereas on the other his party leaders continue to make overtures with the CPM leaders to discuss the modalities of the coalition. Rahul, perhaps, acknowledges the fact that the country is shifting away from the communist ideology, as evident from the recent elections results in Tripura, which was once a communist bastion, and this could be just an election gimmick while stitching an alliance with the Communists.

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With a slew of Congress leaders deserting the ship and regional political parties rejecting any possibility of a coalition with Congress, is Rahul Gandhi crazy to publicly excoriate one of its potential alliance partners to take on the might of the Modi juggernaut and risk another rebuff? Or is this crafty Rahul’s guile to garner votes by overtly appearing to distance himself and his party from the fading communist ideology, while privately consorting with them as a part of Congress party’s political expediency to depose Modi?