The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) considers both the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) as adversaries in a do-or-die battle in the upcoming Assembly elections, party State president K. Surendran has said.
Unlike the previous Assembly polls, he said that the Congress-led coalition would not make any electoral impact this time. “That is why the BJP has emerged as the main opponent to the ruling LDF that has failed in all spheres of activity,” he said in an interview with The Hindu. He also reiterated that the party needed only 35 seats to form the next government in Kerala.
Stressing that Hindutva would be the central plank of the BJP in the polls, he said that electioneering would primarily hinge on the vengeful attitude taken against the Ayyappa devotees during the Sabarimala issue agitation. “The people have not easily forgotten the brutal police action on the devotees at the behest of the CPI(M) leadership,” said Mr. Surendran who had spearheaded the agitation against the Supreme Court verdict that allowed the right of women aged between 10 and 50 years to enter the Lord Ayyappa temple.
Support from Christians
This apart, he said the BJP would focus on the various denominations of the Christian community which were wholeheartedly supporting the BJP. “The party has fielded eminent personalities in the Assembly polls. The list of candidates reveals the importance the party has given to the minorities, especially Christians,” said Mr. Surendran, who is contesting from the Manjeswaram and Konni Assembly constituencies.
The Congress and the CPI(M), Mr. Surendran said, had been encouraging extremist outfits for political and electoral gains. “The Left government has withdrawn cases against the Ayyappa devotees and the agitators of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) simultaneously. This is sheer nonsense. The Ayyappa devotees were fighting for preserving a tradition while the anti-CAA protests were anti-national in nature. The Congress had also demanded withdrawing the cases against the anti-CAA agitators,” he said, alleging that both the fronts spoke for religious extremists.
He said that these coalitions also attached utmost importance to their communal agenda. This had been a determining factor in the selection of candidates all these years though these parties swore by secularism, Mr. Surendran said.