KOLKATA / AGARTALA, Dec 28 (TIWN): The Communist Party of India-Marxist should stop its blind opposition to the Congress and help strengthen secular forces against BJP's Hindutva agenda, V.M. Sudheeran, Kerala's Congress unit chief, said on Monday. He said the ongoing CPI-M party plenum at Kolkata would not result in anything positive unless the communists responded to "the need of the hour" and decide to stop opposing the Congress party blindly. Both Kerala and West Bengal are due for assembly elections next year and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appears to be gaining ground in both states. His comment comes at a time when in West Bengal, until a few years ago an impregnable communist stronghold, both CPI-M and the Congress are having a tough time with the ruling Trinamool Congress on a strong wicket and the BJP making inroads there. As the four-day CPI-M plenum started in Kolkata on Sunday, General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said strengthening the party organisation had become all the more important "given the concerted attack by rightwing reactionary elements against the CPI-M, particularly in our stronghold of West Bengal". Kolkata plenum was aimed at restoring CPI-M's rock bottom popularity and acceptance among masses, so party is trying its level best to sail through with the help of Congress.

While there have been speculations of a probable alliance with the Congress for the Bengal polls, Yechury asserted the party will do whatever it needs to dismantle the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in the state. 

"The motive is to remove the Trinamool Congress to save Bengal. It is one of our prime objective, the other being removal of the Narendra Modi government to save the country. So, whatever steps we need to take, we will discuss about it," replied Yechury to media posers on the possibility of going with the Congress.

The Marxist leader said the primary focus of the plenum was aimed at strengthening the organisational structure and the party will discuss and decide about its course of action for the assembly polls in January.

Sudheeran said the BJP agenda was going to come-a-cropper in Kerala where power has for decades alternated between the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).

In Kerala local body elections earlier this year, BJP improved its tally in village, block and district panchayats, as well as municipalities and corporations. In village panchayats, for instance, BJP won 933 seats -- up from 450 in 2010.

"The BJP is going forward with its Hindutva agenda. It's the Congress party that has always kept the secular flag flying high and hence none can go forward by sidelining the Congress party," Sudheeran said at the Congress's 131st foundation day celebrations in Kerala.
Addressing the CPI-M in particular, Sudheeran said no party could sideline the Congress party in going forward with a secular agenda. 

Since the Narendra Modi government assumed office in Delhi, the UDF and LDF see BJP as a potential threat in Kerala politics. 

The BJP, however, has yet to open its account in the 140-member Kerala assembly. 

With assembly polls round the corner and a new Kerala BJP president in RSS strongman Kummanam Rajasekharan in office, the rival fronts have started to come down heavily on what they see as BJP's strategy to play the Hindu card.