BJP wants to be game-changer

PALAKKAD: In the upcoming Assembly polls, three of the constituencies in Palakkad district would attract attention across the state. One is Malampuzha, where 92-year-old V. S. Achuthanandan will be in the fray. The other two are Thrithala where the Congress’ young leader V. T. Balram will be pitted against a youngster from either the DYFI or CPM and Palakkad constituency where there will be a triangular fight between the Congress, CPM and BJP.

It will probably be smooth sailing for the CPM veteran at Malampuzha where he had won with a margin of 23,440 last time, whereas in Thrithala, where Mr Balaram won with 3,197 votes in 2011, there would be a neck and neck fight.

The BJP had emerged as the single largest party in Palakkad municipality in the local body elections last year by winning 24 seats missing the majority by just three seats. The party now considers the Palakkad seat as a winnable one.

But statistics show that it will not be that easy for the saffron party to defeat another Congress youth leader, Shafi Parambil, who had got 47,641 in 2011 in the constituency. Even though in the polls to the local body, the BJP had crossed the margin of 30,000 votes in the constituency, its candidate Shobha Surendran will have a tough time in Palakkad.

It should, however, be noted that the granary of Kerala has swung towards the Left in the last two Assembly elections. In 2006, when the LDF came to power in the state with a whopping majority, the LDF had won nine out of the eleven seats in the district. Whereas in the last Assembly polls in 2011, when the UDF wrested power in the state with a wafer-thin majority of four seats, out of the total 12 seats, the LDF got seven.

In the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 both the Alathur constituency and Palakkad constituency were won by CPM candidates with a huge majority. Though the procurement price of paddy was increased, the delay in distributing the money among the paddy farmers is expected to backfire on the UDF in the elections.

Even though poll pundits predict that LDF would improve its tally in Palakkad, there are some who believe that the BJP gaining more votes in the district might consolidate Muslim votes in favour of the UDF and the front would put up a better show than in the last Assembly polls. In constituencies like Pattambi, Shornur and Mannarkad, the Muslim votes will be a deciding factor.