The Congress and the CPI(M) have always liked to believe that the BJP’s lotus will never bloom in Kerala but that situation seems to be changing since the nomination of Gujarat CM Narendra Modi as the BJP-led NDA’s PM candidate. The State BJP now hopes to end its electoral drought in the coming lok Sabha polls on the wings of this change.
The Kerala BJP’s plan this time is to concentrate its energies on one lok Sabha constituency that holds maximum winnability. That seat obviously is Thiruvananthapuram where BJP candidate O Rajagopal, senior party leader and former Union Minister, had bagged over 20 per cent of the votes in the 1999 and 2004 elections.
“We have great confidence as far as the Thiruvananthapuram constituency is concerned,” BJP National Executive member Sobha Surendran told The Pioneer on Tuesday. “Even in Kerala, we see a huge groundswell in favour of the BJP and NDA, especially since the coronation of Modi,” she said.
Even leftist leaders secretly admit the BJP can put up a tough a fight against both the CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF and the Congress-headed ruling UDF in Thiruvananthapuram. The seat is currently held by Union Minister Shashi Tharoor, who grabbed it from the left by a majority of 99,998 votes.
“Rajagopal has proved twice that the BJP can offer a tough fight in Thiruvananthapuram. A major section of voters in Thiruvananthapuram belongs to the middle class and upper middle class who voted for Tharoor and who likes Modi’s development perspective and slogans. In that sense, it is reasonable for the BJP to keep hopes,” said a senior CPI leader.
Moreover, the BJP can this time expect to a great extent at least an undeclared support from the NSS, outfit of the Hindu upper caste Nairs, and the SNDP, organisation of Hindu lower caste Ezhavas, which are highly influential in Thiruvananthapuram, are not on good terms with Congress or left and are not against the development policy of Modi, observers say.
The BJP, on its part, has planned big for cashing in on the situation for winning at least one of the 20 lok Sabha seats. “It is a big dream for a party which has not yet been able to even open its account in the State Assembly. But our own studies show that this dream need not impossible provided we do things correctly,” said a BJP functionary.