Will the lotus bloom in God’s Own Country this timeIJ Kerala has been asking this question for the past three decades during every election. However, BJP leaders and workers in the State are absolutely confident about the party’s chances of winning at least one seat in the 16th lok Sabha election. Their confidence need not be unfounded, say observers.
A large number of Kerala voters, destined to choose either the scam-tainted UDF led by the Congress or the lDF headed by the CPI(M) facing the charge of indulging in politics of violence and fascism, have sufficient reason to consider BJP as a credible alternative, especially in the context of the nationwide Narendra Modi wave, State BJP leaders think.
They are of the feeling that the party has been successful in convincing the people of the State in its campaign on how the Congress and the CPI(M) have been indulging in a “politics of adjustment” on all burning political and social issues like the infamous solar scam and the brutal murder of rebel Marxist leader TP Chandrasekharan.
Unlike in the previous elections, the party hopes to get the support of influential Hindu community outfits like the SNDP Yogam, the umbrella outfit of the backward Ezhavas constituting almost 25 percent of the State’s population. Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan had personally showered praises on Modi and BJP at a function in Kochi last month.
Another factor that may work in favour of the BJP in this election, according to party leaders, is the new awakening seen among the Dalits, whom both the UDF and lDF have been viewing merely as a votebank. Modi had struck a chord with the Dalits of Kerala on February 9 when he
opened a Kerala Pulaya Maha Sabha conclave in Kochi on February 9.
According to K Surendran, State BJP general secretary and party candidate in Kasaragod constituency, “We sincerely hope to open account this time. I am certain that the Modi wave will work in our favour. The unholy understanding between the UDF and lDF on controversial issues is going to be another factor that will help the BJP.”
The BJP has announced the names of candidates for 17 of the total 20 seats in the State. However, its hopes for success are revolving around two seats — Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod — where the party had shown its capacity to garner large numbers of votes in the previous elections.
Even leaders of the UDF and CPI(M) secretly admit that former Union minister O Rajagopal is a formidable challenge to both the lDF and UDF as BJP’s candidate in Thiruvananthapuram.
In the 2004 lok Sabha election in this seat, Rajagopal had bagged for the BJP 29.86 percent of the total votes
when the Congress candidate who came second had got 30.30 per cent.