The BJP on Sunday formally launched its campaign for the June 27 by-poll in Kerala’s Aruvikkara Assembly constituency in Thiruvananthapuram district with a grand convention even as the CPI(M)-led lDF seemed to be losing the edge it had a week ago due to several factors including an explosion that took place on Saturday in faraway Kannur district in which two young Marxists were killed.
According to the State police, the blast in Kolavallur, Kannur had taken place amidst bomb-making but State CPI(M) secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan made an unconvincing effort to claim that his party had no role in the incident. He alleged that there was mystery behind the explosion and that it was being used as a campaign weapon against his party.
The UDF has already taken up the incident as a big campaign point in Aruvikkara by describing it as a telling example of the Marxists’ affinity to violent politics just as it had used the brutal murder of rebel Marxist leader TP Chandrasekharan of Onchiyam, Kozhikode on May 4, 2012 as a weapon against the lDF in the Neyyattinkara by-election held on June 12 that year.
The refusal of the CPI(M) leadership to bury its differences with nonagenarian Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan, the left’s most popular leader, has also affected the campaign of the lDF, which had gained an edge over the others in the initial stage of electioneering by declaring former Minister and former Speaker M Vijayakumar as its candidate.
The Congress-led UDF, which fielded KS Sabarinath, son of Speaker G Karthikeyan whose death in March had necessitated the Aruvikkara by-election, in a bid to cash in on the possible sympathy factor as that was only option left for it as its Government was facing serious corruption charges, has regained some confidence due to the confusion seen in the lDF camp.
“The left, particularly the CPI(M), is in an absurd situation. At a time when they should be thinking of how they can use Achuthanandan in the campaign in Aruvikkara, the top CPI(M) leaders are discussing in Delhi what action they should take against Achuthanandan. I think the CPI(M) has already decided to lose this by-poll,” said a Kochi-based former Marxist theorist.
Observers feel that Saturday’s explosion in Kannur and the CPI(M)’s relentless campaign against Achuthanandan are likely to affect the lDF’s prospects in the by-poll in a big way. “Kodiyeri can issue as many denials as he likes. But the people do believe that the blast took place amidst bomb-making. It will have its influence on the by-election,” said the ex-theorist.
“It is true that the blast took place over 500 km away from Aruvikkara but it should not give any relief to the CPI(M) in Aruvikkara. Chandrasekharan was murdered in Onchiyam, far away from Neyyattinkara, but the murder played a big role in the defeat of the lDF candidate there in the 2012 by-poll,” a senior editor of a pro-Congress newspaper pointed out.
The BJP on Sunday started issuing to the pro-Achuthanandan leftist voters copies of a resolution passed in February by the State CPI(M) secretariat against Achuthanandan, which described him as a person with anti-party mentality. The move came amidst reports that Achuthanandan might campaign for the lDF candidate in Aruvikkara from Monday or Tuesday.
State BJP general secretary K Surendran said that it was absurd for the CPI(M), which had termed Achuthanandan as a person with anti-party mentality and who used to help the UDF in its moments of crisis, to bring him to Aruvikkara for campaigning for the left candidate. “We are putting across to the pro-VS voters the hypocrisy of the CPI(M) leadership,” he said.
The BJP, which has fielded senior party leader and former Union Minister O Rajagopal as its candidate, is considering this by-election as an opportunity for opening electoral account in Kerala. It thinks that a huge section of voters are fed up with the corruption-ridden rule of the UDF and the ‘politics of adjustment’ the left is allegedly playing with it.