Son Anil, his party BJP should lose LS polls: Congress veteran AK Antony

Veteran Congress leader AK Antony on Tuesday (April 9) asserted that his son, Anil K Antony, who defected to the BJP, should not win the Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha seat in Kerala in the impending polls.

“The Congress is my religion,” said the 83-year-old former defence minister, reacting to repeated queries about his son’s politics.

The former Kerala chief minister said he put his health issues aside to address the media, as he thought he had to come out and make his stand clear, as this is an election to “safeguard the idea of India and its constitution”.

“It is a do-or-die battle,” said Antony, who is India’s longest-serving defence minister (2006-2014).

Clearing the air

Antony’s stand comes as a big boost to the Congress, as the party has been on the defensive after Anil and late Congress stalwart K Karunakaran’s daughter, Padmaja Venugopal, switched over to the BJP in Kerala.

There were allegations from certain quarters of Antony’s political opponents that Anil had moved to the BJP with the silent blessings of his family, especially after a video surfaced of his mother, Elizabeth, speaking at a church meeting where she said she knew her son would join the BJP.

Antony cited health issues as a reason for not traveling out of Thiruvananthapuram to campaign for the Congress and said that even if he did not go to Pathanamthitta to campaign, Congress candidate Anto Antony would win the south Kerala constituency with an absolute majority.

“For me, family and politics are different. This stance isn’t new; I have maintained it since my days in KSU,” said the veteran politician. The Kerala Students Union (KSU) is the student organisation of the Congress in Kerala.

Anil’s reaction

Reacting sharply to his father’s remarks, Anil said the Congress has outdated leaders and only sympathises with his father for backing sitting MP Anto Antony, who recently stirred up a controversy by making statements on the Pulwama terror attack.

Anil asserted to reporters that he himself will win the Pathanamthitta seat.

Slamming both Left and Right

Antony not only slammed the BJP but also attacked the Left Front government in Kerala in one of his lengthiest press conferences since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Breaking his silence after a long gap, Antony reiterated why people should rally behind the Congress — to “reinvent” India and to protect the spirit of the Indian Constitution.

“The party that rules at the Centre has been trying to destroy the very concept of India, and the important question is how to stop this danger,” Antony said.

“BJP’s golden years over”

He said the golden years of BJP in Kerala are already over, and the NDA will finish in the third place in all constituencies in the state. According to him, the “golden era” was during the 2019 general elections, when the BJP bagged some extra votes due to the Sabarimala women’s entry controversy.

“This year, there is no factor that favours BJP, and they will get a reduced share of votes,” Antony said.

“Please write this down and keep it. They will finish in the third place in all constituencies in Kerala,” he asserted.

Raking up Calcutta Thesis

Taking a dig at the ruling Left in the state, Antony said neither Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan nor his party has anything to do with the creation of India’s Constitution, and the entire credit for its creation goes to the Indian National Congress and Dr BR Ambedkar.

“His party claimed that the independence India got was not independence and called for an armed rebellion against the [Jawaharlal] Nehru government through the Calcutta Thesis,” Antony alleged.

The “Calcutta Thesis” refers to a document formulated by the Communist Party of India (CPI) during its second congress held in Calcutta in 1948. This thesis advocated for a strategy of armed revolution against the then Indian government led by Jawaharlal Nehru.

Vijayan belongs to the CPI(M), though, a party that was formed by splitting away from the CPI in 1964.

“End of democracy”

Antony said it was the Constitution Committee, with the Congress having a brutal majority, that created the Constitution with the help of Ambedkar, and Vijayan has no right to criticise the Congress while calling for protecting the Constitution.

He called on the people to vote for the Congress to end the rule of Narendra Modi and the RSS.

“If BJP comes to power, the Constitution of India will be sabotaged, and it would be the end of democracy. We need to put away that danger,” Antony said.

(With agency inputs)