Kerala’s season of political Yatras associated with the Assembly polls to be held in May started on Monday with Chief Minister Oommen Chandy flagging off the Jana Raksha Yatra being captained by State Congress president VM Sudheeran. A major difference of these Yatras this season from those of the past is that the focus of slogans has shifted from the usual UDF-left rivalry to the growth of the BJP.
Sudheeran’s Yatra which started at Kumbala in northernmost Kasaragod district will conclude at the Sanghummukham beach in the State capital of Thiruvananthapuram on February 9 after touching about 135 of the total 140 Assembly constituencies in Kerala. Almost all the State leaders of the Congress party were present at the public meeting held as part of the launch of the Yatra.
Kerala will witness a minimum of half a dozen Yatras in January-February. The most awaited march among these is perhaps the CPI(M)’s Nava Kerala Yatra to be led by Politbureau member Pinarayi Vijayan, probably the chief minister candidate of the Opposition lDF. Pinarayi’s Yatra will leave Kumbala on January 15 and end at Thiruvananthapuram on February 14.
The State has witnessed such political Yatras before all important elections in the past but the start of Sudheeran’s march on Monday proved that the slogans have undergone a huge change this time. If the UDF-lDF rivalry used to be the focus of the Yatras in the past, it is the BJP which is getting all the attention in the season of marches this time.
Almost all the leaders who spoke at the inaugural of Sudheeran’s march in Kumbala, including the PCC chief himself, Chandy and Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala who presided over the function had focused their speeches on the “need to keep the BJP away” in order to protect secularism and defeat “fascism-communalism”.
Chief Minister Chandy pegged his inaugural speech on RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat’s recent proposal to hold talks with the CPI(M) to put an end to the political violence in Kannur and Pinarayi’s half-positive response to it while Sudheeran devoted most of his speech to highlight the “need” to block the forward march of the BJP in Kerala.
“If the discussions the CPI(M) is planning to hold with the RSS are really intended for establishing peace, the people will welcome it. On the contrary, if it is meant for garnering votes, the people will kick them out,” Chandy said. He added that it was not yet time to forget the alliance the Marxist had forged with the Jan Sangh in 1977.
“I would say Kerala is going through a crucial phase of political history,” said Chandrasekharan, a researcher in Political Science. “For over three decades, there has been almost no change in the political preferences of the two main fronts. Suddenly, BJP is showing itself as a huge force capable of forcing them to reconsider their agendas,” he said.
The BJP itself will be holding a north-south pre-poll Kerala Yatra. The march to be captained by its new State president Kummanam Rajasekharan will start at Manjeswaram, considered as a stronghold of the party in Kasaragod district, on January 20 and will conclude in Thiruvananthapuram on February 9.
The other Yatras to be held in the season include those of the Muslim league and the CPI, second biggest parties respectively in the UDF and lDF. The Muslim league’s Yatra from January 24 to February 11 is to be captained by Industries Minister PK Kunhalikutty while the CPI march will be led by its State secretary Kanam Rajendran from January 29 to February 18.
Vellappally Natesan, general secretary of SNDP Yogam, outfit of Hindu lower caste Ezhavas, had held a State-wide Samathwa Munnetta Yatra from November 23 at the conclusion of which on December 5 he declared the launch of a new party of the majority communities, Bharat Dharma Jana Sena, which will most likely forge an alliance with the BJP for the Assembly poll.