Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], March 22 (ANI): Former Kerala DGP TP Senkumar on Sunday predicted a hung assembly in the state elections, claiming that the CPI(M) and Congress may join hands to form an INDIA bloc government.

Speaking to ANI, Senkumar highlighted that the BJP's ally Twenty20 Party does not have a strong hold outside Ernakulam district, which may cost them in the elections. He claimed that if the CPI(M) and Congress join hands, the BJP might have a Leader of Opposition in the state.

Former DGP Senkumar said, 'My first prediction is a hung assembly. Pinarayi is getting about 55 seats or so, and other people are getting about 65 or fewer. It will have the INDI alliance in Kerala. BJP will have the Opposition Leader.'

He predicted that the BJP would win 16 seats in the Assembly elections.

He said, 'I am not in the BJP because I want to correct them wherever they go wrong. Their policy of taking Twenty20 is a bad policy because they have no votes outside 2-3 panchayats in Ernakulam district. If they didn't take them along, we would have got Tripunithura, Kodungallur, and actually Varkala; if the BJP stood, they would have won it.'

'Otherwise, I think that the BJP is going to get about 16 seats with this. It is despite Rajeev Chandrasekhar's wrong policies or others along with him, who are taking some very foolish candidates. They have to correct some things.'

Polling for Kerala Assembly elections will be held in a single phase on April 9, with counting of votes scheduled for May 4.

The CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front will look to defend its power against the Congress-led United Democratic Front. With a historic win in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation polls, the BJP has also become a party in the fray.

Meanwhile, Senkumar, one of the 275 signatories who wrote to the US government urging action over the recent report by USCIRF, questioned the background of members of the US-based commission, which claimed that religious freedom continued to deteriorate in India.

He claimed a rising population of religious minorities, to counter USCIRF, which demanded sanctions against Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

'In India, the population in 1947 was about 90 per cent Hindus, the remaining were the minorities, especially Muslims. In 1951, they were about nine percent and in 2011, they were almost fifteen percent such a growth. Figuratively, the three crore population in 1947 jumped to 22 crore population in maybe 2025,' he said.

He also defended Indian agencies and social organisations, saying, 'First thing regarding RAW is India's agency. First, we should ban the CIA. Secondly, RSS is the largest NGO in the world.'

Earlier, a total of 275 signatories, including 25 retired judges, 119 retired bureaucrats and 131 armed forces officers, on Saturday slammed the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report asking Washington DC to sanction India's RAW and the RSS over alleged discrimination against minority communities.

The US-based Commission had alleged that India's 'political system facilitates a climate of discrimination toward religious minority communities' despite offering some constitutional protections for freedom of religion or belief (FoRB). It called for sanctions against the RSS and the RAW.

In a statement, the signatories called the USCIRF report 'disturbing' and 'off-the-mark,' and said that the US-based organisation's recommendations against the RSS were 'highly motivated, and displayed intellectual bankruptcy.' (ANI)