The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will not reap electoral benefits from the ongoing rath yatra from Kasaragod to Pathanamthitta led by party State president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, CPI(M) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has said.
Opening a seminar organised ahead of the State conference of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) here on Saturday, he claimed that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) would repeat its 2004 electoral performance in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Mr. Balakrishnan accused the BJP of whipping up religious passions at party meetings to get votes in the elections. “Every other meeting of the BJP now starts with ‘Swami saranam’ and ‘Ayyappa saranam’ calls. This is blatant use of religious feelings for electoral purposes. Gods are being used to get votes,” he said.
However, Mr. Balakrishnan claimed that the strategy would not work in Kerala. “Lal Krishna Advani’s rath yathra helped the BJP increase its tally from two to 84 in the Lok Sabha. Recalling this, Mr. Pillai has said the ongoing rath yatra seeking to preserve the customs at the Sabarimala Temple will help the BJP increase its numbers in the Kerala Assembly from one to 71. It will not happen here,” he said.
The CPI(M) Polit Bureau member accused the BJP and the Sangh Parivar of trying to break the secular fabric of Kerala through the Sabarimala agitation. “Those who engaged in violence in Sabarimala were not devotees. No devotee will stage an agitation near the 18 sacred steps leading up to the sanctum sanctorum. They wanted a riot there. The government, however, did not fall into their trap,” he said.
“Our party is for social change and we will support any attempt in that direction irrespective of whether we lose elections for that reason or not. We are hopeful of repeating the 2004 performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections,” he added.