Kerala swings to the right, keeps BJP waiting yet again
Kerala’s underlying yell of revolution showed up in the 2019 Lok Sabha election verdict too.
Even before the poll results were announced, it was amply clear that most pronounced push to keep the BJP out of power came from India’s most south-flung state. The BJP, in spite of fielding the best of candidates and resorting to an aggressive posturing on Sabarimala, could not find resonance with the state’s populace.
Among the most keenly contested fights was the one in Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram where Congress leader Shashi Tharoor took on BJP veteran Kummanam Rajasekharan. The BJP sought to counter Tharoor’s ‘international appeal’ with Kummanam’s clean image and frugal dispensation. The BJP’s excessive reliance on the Sabarimala issue and its neglect of issues that could have mattered to a state with Europe-level health indices could have been a cardinal mistake.
Political observers were unanimous that the ruling CPM was inadvertently pandering to the BJP’s agenda by proactively implementing the Supreme Court directive on the entry of women in the menstruating age to Sabarimala.
The mandate of the people of Kerala also comes as a solace to the Congress which is facing a hard defeat across the country. Rahul Gandhi’s contest from Wayanad enthused the usually scattered Congress ranks. This was evident in the regrouping and active campaign which they undertook subsequently. The initial apprehension among Congress candidates was articulated by Shashi Tharoor who said the party’s campaign machine was ineffective and loose.
The party and its allies won 19 of the 20 seats. The LDF won one seat, the LDF’s previous worst show was in 2014 when it won 9 seats.
The defeat of CPM strongman P Jayarajan to Congress’s K Muraleedharan in north Kerala’s Vadakara, an LDF stronghold, sends a message that the electorate no more endorses the party’s politics of extermination. Jayarajan is known as the mastermind behind many political killings in the northern part of Kerala, especially in Kannur and Kasaragod.
