The Kerala BJP had approached the 16th lok Sabha election with a “now-or-never” kind of determination to open account in the State by attacking with equal vehemence both the Congress-led ruling UDF and CPI(M)-headed Opposition lDF throughout the election campaign for their “politics of understanding and adjustments”.
But that has not stopped the two main fronts from attacking each other over a non-existent — as BJP leaders claim — secret pact with that party for vote adjustments. One of the seats figuring prominently in these allegations is the Thiruvananthapuram seat, which the BJP has been hoping to produce the party’s first lS MP from the State. Polling in Kerala was held on April 10.
It was CPI(M) Politburo member MA Baby MlA, lDF candidate in Kollam, who started the war of words with a statement that the BJP had transferred votes for former State Minister NK Premachandran of the RSP, the candidate of the Congress-led UDF, in his constituency. Kollam had seen one of the toughest battles of this election in Kerala.
Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy described Baby’s allegation as an act of taking anticipatory bail as he was convinced of his own defeat in Kollam but Baby held fast to his charge. However, sources close to PM Velayudhan, BJP candidate in Kollam, said the left and Congress were fighting each other over something over which they had no control or right.
As the controversy over Baby’s allegation and Chandy’s retort was going on, Congress leader K Muraleedharan, representing the Vattiyoorkavu Assembly segment in Thiruvananthapuram constituency, sparked off a new debate by alleging that the left had transferred a large number of votes to the BJP candidate, former Union Minister O Rajagopal, in Thiruvananthapuram.
According to Muraleedharan, the left had given many votes to Rajagopal as part of an agreement by which the BJP would help CPI(M) candidate Baby with its votes in the Kollam constituency. State Health Minister VS Sivakumar, Congress MlA from Thiruvananthapuram Assembly segment, supported Muraleedharan’s theory saying that this was indeed vote-trade.
The left was quick to respond to the charge leveled by Muraleedharan and Sivakumar. “Who will believe thisIJ Nobody! BJP is our Enemy No 1 in Kerala as well as India. Is there anybody who does not know thisIJ” asked State CPI secretary Pannyan Raveendran adding that the lDF candidate was sure to win the Thiruvananthapuram seat.
According to State BJP president V Muraleedharan, the left and the UDF were hurling allegations at each other over the nonexistent vote-transfer because of their fear of defeat. Stating that Rajagopal would win the Thiruvananthapuram seat, he said people from both the lDF and UDF had voted for the BJP.
The Thiruvananthapuram constituency had seen a fierce triangular battle in the 16h lok Sabha election with Rajagopal, a widely reputed figure, posing a big challenge to Congress candidate Shashi Tharoor, Union Minister and sitting MP, and J Bennett Abraham, the Independent candidate the CPI had fielded for the lDF.
Rajagopal had given a tough time to both the lDF and the UDF in Thiruvananthapuram in the 2004 lok Sabha election when he had bagged 29.86 percent votes while the vote-shares of the lDF and the UDF were just 37.45 per cent and 30.30 per cent respectively.