The CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front is now looking for fresh campaign narratives to take on the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls in north Kerala following Rahul Gandhi’s decision to contest from Wayanad.
Leaders of both the CPI(M) and CPI had criticised the Congress president’s candidature during their campaign meetings even while the suspense over his contest continued for over a week. Now, their tone and tenor have changed.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, at an election convention here on Tuesday, dug up issues such as the Gadgil Committee report on the Western Ghats and the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement during the Congress-led UPA government to target Mr. Gandhi.
Apart from these issues that impacted the livelihood of the people in the hilly region of the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency spread over Kozhikode, Wayanad and Malappuram districts, Mr. Vijayan also bracketed the previous Congress government with the current the BJP dispensation at the Centre. Clearly with an eye on the minority votes, particularly the Muslim community, he also recalled the stand taken by the Congress on the Babri Masjid in the past and the Modi government’s stand on the triple talaq.
With a renewed anti-Congress posture aimed to hit the UDF hard, the LDF is bringing in a bevy of top CPI(M) leaders to campaign in Wayanad in the coming days.
Anti-Modi stand
Party functionaries said that the LDF had focused its experiment against the Modi government at the Centre during the height of the religiously-motivated violence against Muslim and Christians in north India. It highlighted the 2015 Dadri mob lynching in which a mob of villagers attacked the home of 52-year-old Mohammed Akhlaq, propagating a message that the CPI(M)- led Left front was the only party that could take on the BJP and that the Congress-IUML combine was not strong enough for that.
The anti-Modi stand had yielded good electoral dividends for them in the local body polls in 2015 and Assembly polls in 2016 in Kozhikode and elsewhere in north Kerala. Now that political situation has changed with the LDF government coming to power in Kerala.
One of the reasons is the emergence of Mr. Gandhi as a leader standing strongly against Mr. Modi at the national level. Thus, the CPI(M) has directed its attack on Congress more than the BJP as almost all the seats in north Kerala – Kasaragod (Rajmohan Unnithan), Kannur ( K. Sudhakaran), Vadakara (K. Muraleedharan), and Kozhikode (M.K. Raghavan) – are contested by the Congress nominees. They are also in direct fight and these constituencies have a considerable population of minorities.
The Indian Union Muslim League is contesting in two constituencies – Malappuram and Ponnani – both in Malappuram district. Ironically, the anti-BJP stand of the LDF failed to impact the Muslim populated district.