The emphatic defeat suffered by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the Assembly polls is set to deepen the schism between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS).
BDJS sources said party president Thushar Vellappally was giving serious thought about resigning from his position as State NDA convener in protest against the BJP’s “one-upmanship attitude”.
The party’s State council meeting to be held on Wednesday would take a final call on resignation and whether to continue in the NDA, said a senior BDJS leader.
The BDJS, considered the political arm of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam, which contested in 21 seats in the Assembly polls had drawn a blank. The party’s vote share, compared to the 2016 Assembly polls, has plummeted this time.
In the Poonjar Assembly constituency, the BDJS candidate finished a distant fourth, garnering only 2,928 votes as against the 19,966 votes polled in 2016. In Udumbanchola, its tally came down to 7,121 votes from 21,799 five years ago.
The party failed to repeat the performance of 2016 in the four seats it contested in Alappuzha district. Its candidate polled 18,493 fewer votes in Kuttanad when compared to 2016. In Aroor, the difference stood at 10,520 votes, in Kayamkulam 8,913, and Cherthala 5,360.
Party leaders alleged that a section in the BJP State unit had long been trying to weaken the BDJS. “Our candidates received little support from the BJP. The BJP totally ignored those constituencies where its allies were contesting. None of the top leaders of the BJP campaigned for BDJS candidates. They have traded their votes,” a BDJS leader said.
“We are not denying some of our workers who became disenchanted with the saffron party did not vote for BJP candidates, but the NDA candidates largely received BDJS support across the State. It was, however, not reciprocated. They want the BDJS to disintegrate and take our workers and vote base to strengthen them. It is not going to happen,” he said.
