The Bharatiya Janata Party national leadership is making a concerted bid to keep the issue of political violence in the State alive and ticking till the next Lok Sabha elections due in 2019 to engage its cadres and also shake off the graft charges that have cast a slur on the party image.
While actively involving in the peace process initiated by the State government, the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh are attempting to project the violent incidents as attacks on Dalits and backward classes and place the onus squarely on the CPI(M).
The pivot of the national-level campaign, atrocities against Dalits, is expected to help the BJP shed its upper caste image and also accede the Dalit segment that had been remaining elusive to the party so far.
Party sources told The Hindu here the social media platform would be used extensively for the campaign against the LDF government and the CPI(M). Scores of news websites had been identified for the purpose, sources said.
Leaders to tour State
An array of leaders, including BJP president Amit Shah, are set to tour the State and address family gatherings.
RSS supremo Mohan Bhagawat is expected to reach the State soon. Though RSS functionaries say that the visit was planned nearly two months ago and is not even remotely linked to the current campaign, the chances of Mr. Bhagawat calling on the houses of at least some of the victims of political violence could not be ruled out.
The national leadership’s decision to launch the political campaign has come as a great relief to the State leaders who continue to remain clueless about the medical college bribery scam that seriously impaired the BJP’s image all over the country. Both the national and State leaderships have been on the horns of a dilemma and have been struggling hard to find a way out.
The national leadership had decided to drag its feet on the issue by delaying a probe or conduct a review into the graft charges. Now the political violence has come in handy to push the charges under the carpet, at least for the time being.
But a section in the party has raised serious doubts about the efficacy of the State unit in executing the campaign plan worked out by the national leadership. Its alleged laxity in highlighting the Central government’s welfare initiatives is being cited as a case in point.