Thiruvananthapuram, June 29 -- Kerala State BJP President Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Sunday slammed the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), calling it the Congress's 'B-team' and accusing it of the "same corruption and appeasement politics." He also claimed the Left government's opposition to the Bharat Mata portrait was an attempt to distract people from real issues in the state.

CPI(M) is trying to distract the people of Kerala from the real issues: nine years of failures by the LDF government, nearly no progress in development, high unemployment, and rising inflation. Instead, they are trying to divert attention from those important issues to meaningless ones, such as their opposition to Bharat Mata and the Tricolour," Chand...