The close political battle between the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala seems to have spilled over to Karnataka ahead of the assembly polls in Kerala, expected to be held in April/ May 2026. The statements of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal over the demolition of over 150 “illegal” structures in Kogilu Layout in Bengaluru are being attributed to their political agenda ahead of the elections.
Mr. Venugopal’s statement on Saturday criticising the demolition, which seems to have made Congress leaders in Karnataka embarrassed, came close after Mr. Vijayan termed the demolition in Faqir Colony and Waseem Layout as “brutal normalisation of bulldozer raj”. He said, “Sadly, the Sangha Parivar’s anti minority politics is now being executed under a Congress government in Karnataka”.
While Karnataka’s Deputy Chief Minister and KPCC president D.K. Shivakumar hit back at Mr. Vijayan for “unnecessary interference without an understanding of the facts,” the central Congress leader, in contrast, expressed “AICC’s serious concern”. This has put the Karnataka Congress leaders on the backfoot.
At the centre of their statements, a political observer based out of Thiruvananthapuram pointed out, is the upcoming Assembly elections expected to be closely fought. “The Congress has done well in the recently-concluded local bodies elections in Kerala, even as CPI (M) has ceded ground to the BJP. By using the demolition that has affected families from minority communities, the CPI (M) wants to portray Congress in a poor light, that they are not safe under the Congress regime”. Kerala has a high Muslim electorate, especially in the Northern districts.
In the 2021 Kerala assembly polls, the CPI (M) polled 25.38 % of the total votes, winning 62 seats, while the Congress polled 25.12% of the total votes winning 21 seats. The total vote share of LDF was 41.5 % while it was 38.4 % for UDF.
Mr. Vijayan’s statement has been followed up by the visit of CPI (M) leaders to the demolition site. CPI (M) Rajya Sabha member from Kerala A.A. Rahim, and Independent legislator and former Minister in Left Democratic Front (LDF) K.T. Jaleel were among those who visited Kogilu. At the national level, CPI (M) is part of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc led by the Congress.
Within the Karnataka Congress, though there is a feeling that demolition could have been better handled, “outside interference” has irked the leaders. “It is well known that Mr. Venugopal is an aspirant for the Chief Minister’s post if Congress comes to power in Kerala. As a CM aspirant, he must have found it fit to jump into an issue already raised by Mr. Vijayan. Why would AICC interfere in internal issues of a State otherwise? ” a senior Minister said, insisting that the demolition had no communal angle. “Is it wrong to vacate illegal structures?”
Meanwhile, it is also learnt that the CPI (M) Karnataka leaders have conveyed to their counterparts in Kerala that the party machinery in the State is strong enough to fight the case on its own. “We feel that outside interference will not help the cause since it becomes political”.
The Congress government has been under the lens over its outreach to Kerala over the past two years. A compensation of ₹15 lakh provided to a resident of Wayanad in Kerala in an elephant attack and a subsequent announcement of ₹10 crore to compensate 100 families affected by floods in Wayanad came under attack by the BJP. While Wayanad was initially represented by the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, his sister Priyanka Gandhi represents the constituency now.