Thiruvananthapuram | The opposition Congress on Saturday accused the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala of providing "political protection" to the H D Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular), which recently entered into an alliance with the BJP-led NDA.

Targeting the Marxist party for not ousting the Karnataka-based party from the ruling front, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly V D Satheesan alleged it was the CPI(M) that ensured the position of the NDA ally in the LDF by giving it all political protection.

The minister of the JD(S), which is part of the BJP alliance at the national level, attended the state cabinet meeting held here the other day, he said in a statement.

Taking a dig at the ruling front, the LoP further said that a coalition of the NDA-LDF is ruling the southern state at present.

"It is mysterious that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the LDF leadership remain silent even a week after the announcement of the JD(S) joining the BJP-led NDA," he said.

Satheesan urged the CM and the CPI(M) leadership to clarify under what circumstances the JD (S), an ally of the NDA, is still continuing in the LDF and the cabinet.

He said the Gowda-led party should be expelled from the LDF if there is any sincerity in their anti-Sangh Parivar stance.

The LoP, in the statement, also said Left party leaders should talk about their anti-Sangh stance only after expelling the JD (S) which has joined hands with the BJP.

The former PM Gowda-led party had recently announced that it would ally with the BJP, following a meeting of its leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy with Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP National President J P Nadda.