Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Sunday (December 28, 2025) that the Congress had hit a new political low in Kerala, with eight of its elected members shifting allegiance to enable the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to ascend to power in the Mattathur Grama Panchayat in Thrissur district.
In a Facebook post, Mr. Vijayan said that the political farce, which is typical of the Congress rank-and-file in other States, was new to Kerala.
Congress’s organisational decay fertilised the BJP’s growth in Kerala, Mr. Vijayan said.
Earlier, he had noted that the BJP had gained very overwhelmingly in the local body polls at the Congress’s expense. He said the “Mattanur model” was portentous for secular and progressive Kerala.
Mr. Vijayan said a similar farcical scenario had unfolded in Arunachal Pradesh, with 43 of the 44 Congress MLAs, including the Chief Minister, deserting the party to join the BJP.
He said the BJP replicated the Arunachal Pradesh model again in Goa in 2019 and later in Puducherry in 2021. In 2019, the Congress Legislative Party in Goa merged in its entirety with the BJP.
The BJP, which lacked a single MLA in Puducherry, engaged in horse-trading and ascended to power by piggybacking on Congress deserters.
Mr. Vijayan said the BJP appeared keen to replicate the model in Kerala. He said Mattanur was merely a demonstration. The Congress joined forces with the BJP to prevent the LDF from ruling the grama panchayat. At a stroke, the Congress authored its incremental capitulation to the BJP in Kerala. “Mattanur is merely the beginning, he said.
Mr. Vijayan said the trickle of elected Congress workers defecting to the BJP would soon turn into a flow. “A vote for Congress will invariably manifest as a vote for the BJP, he added.
Mr. Vijayan said the BJP regarded the Congress as a purchasable commodity. The BJP believes it could undermine the people’s mandate by wooing elected Congress workers into the Sangh Parivar fold.
Published – December 28, 2025 01:33 pm IST
