Thiruvananthapuram | Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday accused the Congress of facilitating the BJP’s growth in the state, citing recent political developments in Mattathur panchayat in Thrissur district.

In Mattathur, eight Congress councillors resigned from the party and joined hands with the BJP to support an independent candidate for the president's post, preventing the LDF from retaining control of the local body.

In the panchayat election, the ruling LDF emerged as the single-largest front with 10 seats, followed by the Congress with 8 and the BJP with 4.

Two others, including Congress rebel K R Ouseph, were also elected. When the election to the post of panchayat president was held on Saturday, Ouseph decided to support the LDF.

In view of this, the eight Congress councillors resigned from the party and backed independent candidate Tessi Jose along with the BJP for the president’s post.

This 'alliance' of resigned Congress councillors and the BJP secured victory in the election.

However, the councillors later clarified that they had not joined the BJP, even as the Congress’s Thrissur District Congress Committee issued orders suspending the councillors, including Ouseph, from the party.

In a Facebook post, Vijayan said the Congress was a party constantly waiting for an opportunity to make a “single jump” into the BJP, and that such a jump was witnessed at Mattathur.

He alleged that all Congress candidates who were elected as panchayat members defected to the BJP, enabling it to seize power.

“Only eight Congress members were left in the UDF there. The BJP swallowed them whole, leaving not even one behind,” he said, adding that such a political spectacle was unprecedented in Kerala.

Drawing parallels with other states, Vijayan recalled that in 2016, 43 out of 44 Congress MLAs in Arunachal Pradesh, including the Chief Minister, defected overnight to the NDA.

He also referred to Puducherry, where the BJP came to power in 2021 despite having no MLAs, and to Goa, where the entire Congress legislative party merged with the BJP in 2019.

Vijayan alleged that Congress leaders joined hands with the BJP in Mattathur to prevent an LDF president from coming to power.

“What is being proven here is that those who remain in the Congress today will not hesitate to become BJP overnight. Congress leaders feel no moral conflict in replacing the hand symbol with the lotus,” he said.

He further claimed that BJP–Congress adjustments were evident in several places across the state, as reflected in the local body election results.

“The Mattathur model is the latest chapter in that strategy,” he said.

Vijayan, in a X post, said that what happened in Mattathur Panchayat in Kerala yesterday reveals a vicious trend: Congress members joining hands with the BJP to seize power.

“This politics of turncoats directly strengthens the Sangh Parivar’s project by normalising defections and eroding democratic mandates. Such conduct, seen earlier in Arunachal, Goa and Puducherry, fuels the BJP’s ambitions in Kerala. The Congress leadership must respond clearly to this dangerous drift,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, the Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly, VD Satheesan, denied allegations that Congress members had switched to the BJP in Mattathur panchayat.

He said the CPI(M) was raising the Mattathur incident as it had no other issues to discuss.

"In Mattathur, when the CPI(M) attempted to install an independent councillor as panchayat president, Congress councillors supported another independent candidate," he said.

He added that the councillors were suspended for violating the party’s decision. "They have not switched to the BJP," he said.

The Opposition leader also hit out at Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, alleging that he was aligned with the BJP.

"He will sign wherever Narendra Modi asks him to. Such a person is now ridiculing us," he said.