Upset by the possibility of the BJP and the SNDP Yogam – the influential outfit of Hindu lower caste Ezhavas, which constitutes 20 per cent of the State’s population – entering into an alliance, the Kerala CPI (M) on Friday embarked on a campaign against the Yogam’s general secretary, Vellappally Natesan by leveling personal allegations against him.
Giving indications that the efforts for alliance were perhaps in the final stages, Vellappally had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah in New Delhi on Thursday. “The BJP and the SNDP have come closer to each other, but I can’t say anything at this stage on how the closeness is going to transform,” said State BJP chief V Muraleedharan on Friday.
The CPI(M)’s attack against Vellappally, known as a shrewd businessman, has been more of personal nature than political and observers felt that the Marxists’ bid was to project the BJP-SNDP alliance as his personal requirement more than a general political need of the Yogam. However, Vellappally refused to take the Marxist criticisms seriously.
Stating that the CPI(M) and the Congress were fast moving into total decimation, he said, “Instead of attacking others, these parties which have lost the people’s trust should try to correct their mistakes. What the criticisms against the SNDP prove is that we are becoming an invincible force in Kerala.”
According to the Yogam chief, there is space for a third alternative in Kerala politics which is presently dominated by the Congress-led UDF and CPI(M)-headed lDF. The theory is that a party, most probably to be formed indirectly by the SNDP, and the BJP can form that alternative with other majority communities that are fed up with the ‘discrimination’ they have been facing.
“Who all were there in the team that had met the Prime Minister the other dayIJ They were Vellappally, his wife Preethi Natesan and son Thushar Vellappally. This makes it amply clear that the meeting was to further his family interests and to see how he can derive financial benefits,” said senior Marxist and Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan.
Achuthanandan had earlier accused Vellappally of taking more than Rs 100 crore as bribe in the past four years from the appointment of 302 teachers in the educational institutions under the SN Trust, controlled by the SNDP Yogam. He had also alleged that Vellappally was now joining hands with the BJP out of fear for Modi’s pledge to act against black money holders.
On Friday, State CPI(M) secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan attacked Vellappally by saying that he was trying to transform the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam, founded on the teachings of social reformer Sree Narayana Guru, into a Natesan Paripalana Yogam. “Aren’t the new institutions being started under SNDP named after VellappallyIJ” Kodiyeri asked.
On the political front, the CPI(M) move is to make the issue of reservations the weapon to counter the move for a BJP-SNDP alliance. The Marxists’ plan is to try to discourage members of the backward Ezhava community from supporting such an alliance with a campaign that reservations as such would cease to exist once the BJP got two-thirds majority.
While talking to a television channel in Delhi earlier, Vellappally said that a third front could come into being in Kerala before the Assembly election to be held in April or May next year. He, however, added that the BJP might not be able to lead that front. A report had said the other day that Vellappally could be the chief minister candidate of the SNDP-BJP alliance.
But State BJP chief Muraleedharan said it was premature to discuss such things as even the preliminary form of such an alliance had not come up. “The big thing going to happen now is the civic election to be held next month and there is enough time to consider matters connected to the Assembly election,” he said.