Kerala Assembly elections: Hindutwa ground for BJP in future

Thiruvananthapuram: The BJP candidate line-up is as illustrious as it its State leadership but the question is who will lead the party when all top guns are immersed in electioneering.

The BJP polled 6.03 per cent votes in the 2011 Assembly elections and 10.5 percent in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, which means the party has neither the reach nor the depth of influence to make major gins in the State’s electoral politics, ranged between the two major fronts.

The way out has been the tie-up with the pro-Ezhava Bharat Dharma Jana Sena though at the behest of the party’s central leadership. But pollsters and veterans trying to make sense of the BJP-BDJS alliance have been clueless on how the tie-up will pan out.

Knowing this all too well, RSS workers set up booth-level committees and have been carrying out pre-poll reconnaissance to identify sure, not-so-sure and doubtful voters. This has been on for the past two months.

But at the ground-level, the BJP-BDJS coordination is yet to take off. The tie-up has been abrupt and 45 days is too short for the alliance to sink in, leaving workers less time to get to know each other.      

BDJS president Tushar Vellapally is dismissive of such an assessment. “Such gloomy prospecting is being done by those opposed to the emergence of a third force in the State.  The face of NDA has undergone a makeover in Kerala with Bharat Dharma Jana Sena joining it. We have enrolled 10 lakh members in BDJS. Many of them were once part of the pro-Left youth cadre, equipped to undertake disciplined organizational work. The basis for our confidence is 30,000 to 40,000 votes the combine has collected in 28 Assembly segments, obtained after extrapolating civic results”.  

BJP has branded 22 seats A plus, hoping that once its leaders, who are also candidates, start their campaigns, these constituencies will automatically gain in electoral importance.

RSS State secretary V Gopalankutty Master says the Sangh workers have been asked to go all out to mobilize the Hindu community because time is ripe  to assert Hindutva. “So far RSS workers have been confined to the cultural front. But now they would work to ensure adequate Hindu presence in the State’s electoral politics”.

However, political leaders feel the BJP-BDJS combine misses the big picture. Between Kasargod and Ernakulam, the SNDP influence has been nominal. Down south up to Thiruvananthapuram, the influence has been scattered and concentrated in pockets. Not all SNDP office-bearers would automatically double up as BDJS functionaries.  

The BDJS factor has alienated Nairs, many of whom used to back the BJP. “This tilt hits at the move to rally the Hindu community. What does Union Minister for Health J P Nadda know about the Kerala’s political terrain and the mind of the voters”, asks a prominent BJP leader. At best, the alliance could lay the ground for the future.