In the face of reports and charges of cross-voting and vote-trading in a number of Lok Sabha segments, the CPI(M) State secretariat is meeting here on Friday for a threadbare analysis of the functioning of the Left Democratic Front’s (LDF) election machinery and also to review its prospects.
The seeming nonchalance of the voters to a high-voltage campaign, the huge turnout and the absence of a specific trend are eluding a conclusion and have also made the post-poll scrutiny quite challenging for all fronts. But the CPI(M) had tasked one secretariat member each for every segment and the party machinery would proffer a clear picture of voter conduct at the meeting.
Party sources exuded the confidence of winning an impressive majority out of the 20 seats, unless any political undercurrent that its machinery could not capture queered the pitch for the LDF candidates.
The party is banking heavily on the minority votes, which it hopes would swing in its favour, especially in the wake of an intense anti-minority campaign mounted at the behest of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and also owing to the strategy to present the Left as the sole bulwark against the Sangh Parivar to defend their interests.
The CPI(M) leadership had expressed its doubts about the possibility of a tacit deal among the Congress, the BJP and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), and the BJP fielding relatively weak or lesser known candidates to the advantage of United Democratic Front (UDF) candidates in certain segments such as Kollam, Kozhikode, Vadakara, Kannur, Mavelikara and Idukki.
Though the UDF and the BJP have stoutly dubbed the allegation as unfounded, the CPI(M) chose to substantiate its argument by stating that the polling agents of the BJP that claims to have a pan Kerala presence were missing in a number of polling stations in most of these segments.
The unprecedented cohesion in the party as well as the LDF, especially between the CPI and the CPI(M) and the multi-level vigil in running the campaign machinery are expected to come to aid of the LDF even in Thiruvananthapuram, where it finished a poor third in the previous election.
The secretariat would do a micro-level scrutiny to ensure that its review was not flawed and also gather a realistic picture before the results were announced on May 23, sources said.