The sparkling victory of Congress-led Opposition UDF’s Muslim league candidate PK Kunhalikutty in the by-election in Kerala’s Malapp-
uram lok Sabha Constituency has boosted the confidence of the front prompting it to start efforts for getting stronger even as the BJP is sitting baffled by its candidate N Sreeprakash’s unexpected poor performance.
When UDF leaders get together on Friday for the front’s first meeting after the by-election for which polling was held on April 12 and result was declared on Monday, a main discussion point would be how the coalition could be made stronger. It may also look at the possibility of roping in more partners and bringing back those who had left it in the recent past.
In the by-election that was fought furiously despite the fact that it had no substantial political significance in the State or national level, Kunhalikutty, national general secretary of the Muslim league and former State Minister, had emerged as the winner defeating his nearest CPI(M) rival MB Faisal of the ruling lDF by a margin of 1,71,023 votes.
Though Kunhalikutty’s winning margin did not reach the one achieved by his predecessor, former Union Minister E Ahmed whose death had necessitated the by-poll, in 2014, the victory enabled the UDF to claim that it is still the guardian of ‘secularism’ in Kerala and the crusader for minorities’ rights, especially as Malappuram is a Muslim-majority Constituency.
“The CPI(M) and the BJP are going around saying that a communal polarisation in favour of the Muslim league had brought such a victory to Kunhalikutty. Effectively, it is an affront at the politically conscious voters of Malapp-
uram. This by-election was very political and the fact is that both the Marxists and the BJP fail to see that,” said a senior Congress leader.
A section in the UDF wants the Kerala Congress (M) of former Minister KM Mani, which had left the front in August last, to return. Some Congress leaders are vehemently opposing it. According to sources, there were furious arguments over this question among Congress leaders at a PCC meeting held in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.
At the same time, the State BJP leadership is still unable to pinpoint what went wrong for it in the Malappuram by-poll in which NDA’s young candidate Sreeprakash failed to attain a reasonable increase in votes compared to his own performance in the 2014 general election despite the party’s claims during the campaign phase about raising the score by six times.
Though this claim was a bit exaggerated, the leadership’s ‘realistic’ hope was that Sreeprakash could poll well over 100,000 votes but he polled only 65,675 votes, up by just 970 votes from 2014. State party president Kummanam Rajasekharan, however, does not want to find fault with the partymen and he said the workers had put up a valorous campaign effort for Sreepra-
kash. The State BJP leadership is arguing that Sreeprakash had polled the maximum number of votes the party could muster in a Constituency where Muslims constituted 74 per cent of the electorate and Hindus were a small minority at 24 per cent. However, obser-
vers say that the State leadership will have a tough time explaining the poor performance to the national leaders.