THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, April 10: The BJP on Wednesday accused the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala of denying jobs to MGNREGA labourers for not attending party programmes.
Senior BJP leader and former union minister Prakash Javadekar lashed out at the Marxist party, alleging that it was threatening the laborers that their jobs would be taken away if they didn’t attend the party’s rallies.
“CPM politics in Kerala.. It is threatening MNREGA workers that their jobs would go if they don’t attend the CPM rally. Such tactics won’t work this time. Voters are awakened. They know what Modi is doing for them. Voters are King at the polling station,” he posted on ‘X’.
Javadekar’s criticism came in the wake of reports in a section of the media that nearly 10 women, employed under the MGNREGA, had been denied jobs in Punnapra North village panchayat in Alappuzha.
One of the women workers told a television channel that they were asked to attend a meeting held in a nearby house on Sunday.
“We were told that it was a labour meeting. When we reached there, we understood that it was a party programme of the CPI(M). So, nearly 10 of us, including me, didn’t attend it,” a woman labourer told a TV channel on Wednesday.
She also alleged that she and others who didn’t attend the meeting were asked by authorities not to come for the daily job, despite being enrolled for it. The woman said they lodged a complaint with the panchayat secretary.
The link to the video of the news report was attached to by Javadekar on his post on X.
The CPI(M) has not reacted to the allegations. (PTI)
