All of a sudden, the BJP seems to have become one of the biggest issues for Kerala’s Congress and CPI(M) in the Assembly election to be held on May 16 if leaders’ statements at campaign meetings and Press conferences and spokesmen’s arguments at TV debates are anything to go by.
Observers are of the opinion that the Congress and left have been surprised by the results of several pre-poll surveys that have predicted the possibility of the BJP opening account in the Assembly in a big way, the steady progress the BJP and the NDA have made on the campaign front and the visits by a large number of Central leaders to the State.
The two leaders who are the most worried about the big presence of the BJP and the NDA on the Kerala poll scene seem to be Congress Working Committee member AK Antony and CPI(M) Politbureau member Pinarayi Vijayan, the star campaigners of the ruling UDF and the Opposition lDF.
While Antony sees some kind of a mystery behind the special attention being given by the national BJP leadership to the election in Kerala, the CPI(M) is worried that the Congress and the BJP could have entered into an understanding whereby they would help each other in convenient seats with the common goal of defeating the left.
“The BJP’s agenda is not limited to opening account (in the Assembly). There is something else. Otherwise, the Central leaders of the BJP would not be attaching this much importance to Kerala when elections are being held in five States,” Antony said in Kannur on Monday, repeating almost the same statement he had made in Kasaragod the other day.
“That the unprecedented importance the BJP is attaching to the Kerala election is an indication of some imminent danger… The Prime Minister is coming twice to Kerala. The BJP president is coming. A large number of Ministers and dozens of MPs are coming. Why is the Kerala election so important to the BJP this timeIJ” Antony asked during a speech in Kasaragod the other day.
Pinarayi Vijayan and other CPI(M) leaders seem to have been convinced that there is an understanding between the RSS-BJP and the UDF by which the UDF would help the BJP to open account in the Assembly by voting for it in seats where it is strong while the BJP would help the UDF in the other seats so that its continuance in power can be ensured.
For example, the CPI(M) points out that in Nemom, where former Union minister O Rajagopal is the BJP candidate and where the party is in good strength, the UDF has fielded an “insignificant candidate”, V Surendran Pillai, who had left the lDF very recently after it was made clear that he might not get a ticket for this election.
“Similarly, the BJP is helping the Congress back by fielding a non-politician candidate, cricketer S Sreesanth, obviously to ensure the victory of the Congress candidate, Minister VS Sivakumar. Such adjustments can be seen in two constituencies in Kasaragod district which the BJP hopes to win,” said a State committee member of the CPI(M).
However, observers say that the repeated statements by the Congress and CPI(M) leaders about the “danger” in the forward march of the BJP is part of a strategy to instill fear in the minds of voters belonging to the minorities and thus win their votes as both the parties are now almost convinced that they are bound to lose a large chunk of majority votes to the BJP.
“The Congress and the left are not sure about the extent of the loss of majority votes they may suffer in the polls if the BJP is really going to increase its vote-share significantly. Therefore it is normal for them to try to attract the minority voters. That is why the BJP has become a big poll issue so suddenly,” said the senior editor of a pro-Congress newspaper.