The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is tweaking its campaign strategy by laying more thrust on the Sabarimala issue in final lap of electioneering to garner maximum Hindu votes, ignoring the Election Commission’s warning against soliciting votes in the name of faith and religion.
The strategy shift follows the diatribe of BJP national leaders against the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and party president Amit Shah’s comparison of Wayanad with Pakistan. The first indication to highlight the Sabarimala issue was made with the Sabarimala Karma Samithy, a construct of the Sangh Parivar, staging a prayer session in front of the Secretariat on Saturday.
Seemingly the congregation appeared to be a natural mobilisation of the faithful to protest against the State government that allegedly set the ground for women of child-bearing age to the temple, but this is being construed as a Sangh Parivar bid to keep the embers burning mainly in the southern districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Pathanamthitta, where the BJP hopes to consolidate its gains till the elections are over.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) that is managing the BJP election machinery was reported to be sour over the BJP’s diffidence and confusion in vehemently flagging the issue right from the launch of the campaign and the latest attempt is the outcome of a realisation that the National Democratic Alliance candidates could easily reach out to the voters on discussing Sabarimala.
The BJP does not seem to be concerned about the flak it would draw from its principal foes, the Left Democratic Front and the United Democratic Front for harping on Sabarimala, since this is considered to be a better deal than evading the issue.
Though the party had been treading cautiously in discussing the issue since the Election Commission put its foot down and cautioned against raising religious and communal issues, this was not found to be a viable option and decided to pivot the campaign on Sabarimala itself.
“We cannot afford to skip an issue that had a direct impact on scores of believers in the State. The party has decided to include Sabarimala, the failure of the State government in managing natural calamities and similar issues even in our address through Doordarshan. This will be the prime campaign plank in the final phase and there is no compromise on it,” BJP State spokesperson M.S. Kumar said.