Buoyed by its recent success in the three-tier local body polls, the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) has decided to tweak its social and political strategy for the coming Assembly election.
Now that it has been established that the rainbow coalition, comprising 11 constituents of Left parties with the entry of Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) and the faction led by Jose K. Mani of the Kerala Congress (M), and the formal induction of Indian National League (INL), has unexpectedly yielded impressive gains in the local polls which many believe was the semi-finals.
But in a wider canvas such as the Assembly election, the LDF leaders feel that the electoral battle would be in a divergent matrix that is required to gear up social engineering with political and religious tactics. This is apart from the welfare schemes and the development programmes initiated under the LDF government.
CM’s FB post
The Facebook post of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan against the Congress that the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) seems to dominate the United Democratic Front (UDF) is indicative of the strategy that lay ahead for the religiously and politically embedded electorate of Kerala.
A reading into the statement reveals that it had been done purposely with the twin objectives to target all mainline Opposition parties. His statement has created a rift in the already disarrayed Congress leadership, put the IUML on the defensive and silenced the BJP.
Certainly, the expansion of the Left parties’ nascent bonhomie with the Christian community would go further with the Chief Minister again trying to broker a deal with the warring Jacobite and Orthodox factions. Then, his statement also raises questions within the IUML whether its leader P K Kunhalikutty, MP, whose entry into State politics recently, would actually fight the Assembly polls.
Biggest hurdle
CPI(M) functionaries say that the votes of the Muslim community which the LDF used to garner would not easily wobble under any political circumstances.
However, the biggest hurdle for the LDF is the shrinking of the Hindu vote base, especially the Ezhava community.
The decision of the LDF government to implement a 10% reservation in government jobs has already disturbed the SNDP Yogam. On the other hand, the NSS and Syrian Catholic Church have welcomed the new quota policy.
There is a perception that the Nair community, which traditionally voted for the Congress, and the Ezhava community, which constitutes the voter base of the CPI(M) in the State, are slowly drifting towards the BJP.
The dynamics of the Assembly polls will change with the national leaders of both the Congress and the BJP descending on the State in the coming months.
For now the picture is still hazy, but Mr. Vijayan has sounded the bugle in his the pre-electioneering exercise ahead of Christmas-New Year.
