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Smaller parties may play spoilsport for Kerala’s LDF, UDF

Mainstream political parties in Kerala are rattled by smaller parties with their virulent campaign in the Lok Sabha election to be held in the state on April 10.

Although none of the smaller parties have enough following to win even an assembly seat, the two dominant fronts led by the Congress and the Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPM), which traditionally share the spoils, fear that some of the small players may dent them this time.

While the Left Democratic Front is scared by the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP), which has entered the fray raising the brutal murder of party founder
T P Chandrashekharan by a gang hired allegedly by the CPM as their main plank, the United Democratic Front (UDF) is afraid of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is fighting the poll for a third space.

Political observers feel that the RMP, which is fighting the election in 14 of the 20 constituencies and supporting other break-away factions of Left parties in the remaining, may eat into the CPM votes in several constituencies.

The Congress that heads the ruling front had tried their best to bring the RMP to their side in order to boost its electoral prospects but K K Rema, the widow of the slain leader, decided to go it alone as she fears that such an alliance may dilute the issue she wants to raise in the election.

However, the UDF is trying to cash in on the RMP’s strident anti-CPM campaign by using political murders as their main plank in north Kerala, where the RMP has several pockets of influence. The Congress has also tried to extend the campaign to Thrissur where the latest political murder took place. Two party legislators T N Prathapan and Thomas Unniyadan took the incident to the campaign front on Friday by launching a day-long fast at Perinjanam, where a youth was hacked to death by a killer gang allegedly hired by the CPM, against political murders.

The RMP and the Congress have also turned the volte face done by leader of opposition V S Achuthanandan in the case to their advantage by describing his endorsement of the party line in the case as the 52 wound on the body of Chandrashekharan, who was found dead at Onchiyam on May 4, 2012 with 51 stab wounds.

The U-turn Achuthanandan took in the case has come as a rude shock to the hardcore supporters of the 90-year-old leader, who had stood by Rema in her distress. Senior RMP leaders are trying to win them over to their side. Though none expects that the RMP will win any seat, political observers feel that the party may damage the prospects of the CPM candidates at least in Vatakara, which include Onchiyam.

The CPM had lost this stronghold in 2009, when the slain leader himself entered the fray, by 56186 votes.

The AAP, which inflicted heavy damage to both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party in Delhi, has entered the fray in Kerala pinning their hope on the voters, who are disenchanted with the UDF and LDF, which are voted to power alternately. They are approaching this election as a testing ground for their future plans to occupy the third space that the BJP has failed to achieve in its efforts in the last three decades.

The BJP that has been polling five to 10 per cent votes in the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections ever since they entered the electoral fray in 1980s has not been able to send at least even one person to either the Assembly or Lok Sabha so far. Political observers feel that it will not be easy for the AAP to break the stranglehold in the bipolar political scene of Kerala.

Both BJP and the AAP will draw a blank in Kerala, according to an opinion poll conducted by the Institute for Monitoring Economic Growth (IMEG). The survey based on random sampling and swing study from February 9 to 25 predicts 10 to 14 seats for the LDF and 6 to 10 for the UDF. — news@khaleejtimes.com