Corporates back Narendra Modi as he offers to help them: Prakash Karat

KOCHI: CPM general secretary Praksh Karat has alleged that big corporates and business houses were lending unprecedented support to BJP led by Narendra Modi, as the party had given clear signals that it would serve their interests better than the Congress-led UPA, if voted to power.

Inaugurating the three-day plenum of Kerala unit of CPM in Palakkad, Karat said objective of Left parties was to oppose Congress and BJP since they alone had the credibility and confidence of the people to take this fight forward.

“Narendra Modi is one political leader who has the unprecedented support of all big corporates and business houses in the country...This signals BJP would be a better servitor of the corporates than Congress,” Karat said.

The agenda before the plenum is to address organisational issues like factionalism and corruption that has plagued the party in the last few decades. The meet comes at a time when CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan is moving towards securing complete control of the party unit following CBI’s deletion of his name from the accused list in the SNC Lavlin case.

Karat said that the plenum was a period of introspection meant to end factionalism, extravagant lifestyles and arrogance. There will be a sevenhour discussion on the plenum document, which was prepared after feedback from different area committees.

The plenum document also lists out the compromises made by the cadres in lifestyle and party discipline. The plenum would try to address vices of cadre, like nexus with sand mafia, alcoholism and parliamentary greed.

Opposition leader VS Achuthananthan hoisted the party flag, which marked the beginning of the day’s proceedings at EMS Nagar, the venue. The veteran leader said that he accepted CBI’s decision remove Vijayan’s name from the list of accused in the SNC Lavalin case. Vijayan said that building the party where it was weak, correcting organisational weaknesses and equipping CPM for Parliament elections were main challenges.