The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
In Palakkad bastion breached by Congress, CPM now faces ‘ growing’ BJP
AT THE moment, the BJP’S only electoral presence in Kerala is at the municipality level. In Palakkad town’s 52- member municipality body, the BJP has 28 councillors. As the party looks to “open its account” in the state, which votes in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections on April 26, the Palakkad seat is high on its agenda.
However, this Left Democratic Front ( LDF) stronghold is not an easy seat to make inroads into, with the ruling CPI( M) banking on goodwill from its range of welfare policies and handling of the Covid- 19 crisis.
The LDF, that has been winning the seat since 1996, had a rude shock in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when Palakkad was among the seats won by the Congress- led UDF in its 19- out- of- 20 sweep of Kerala. Palakkad was clinched by the Congress's V K Sreekandan by a margin of 11,637 votes against LDF candidate M B Rajesh, who was seeking a third term. Sreekandan is again contesting from the seat this time around.
The LDF has fielded senior CPI( M) leader and Politburo member A Vijayaraghavan, while the BJP has repeated its 2019 candidate, the party’s state general secretary, C Krishnakumar.
The BJP is taking heart from the fact that it has been improving its vote share in the seat. While its candidate Sobha Surendran, who is contesting from the Alappuzha Lok Sabha seat this time, had got 15% of the votes in Palakkad in 2014,
Krishnakumar increased the number to 21.26% in 2019.
The BJP’S focus is visible, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s posters saying “a new Kerala is Modi’s guarantee” dotting most roads in the seat.
The Palakkad town also sports a new BJP district committee office building, which was inaugurated in February. The party has set up a call centre inside the building — there are seven others across the district — with 28 members, whose job is to reach out to beneficiaries of Union government schemes in the district.
“In Palakkad district, there are eight lakh beneficiaries for schemes, including Ayushman Bharat, Ujjwala Yojana, and PMKisan Samman Nidhi. The focus is also on development work,” Krishnakumar says on the party's central plank for the seat.
Sreekandan is focusing his campaign on the work in the constituency over the past five years under the Congress.
“The 10 years under the BJP ( at the Centre) challenges the Constitution of the country... The Centre has done nothing for the people... In the state, welfare pen
sions have not been given. Water and electricity charges are up. The CPI( M) is fighting for its existence.”
A CPI( M) worker points out that the BJP had not been able to repeat its Palakkad municipality feat in nearby panchayats, while the LDF had won five of the seven Assembly segments in the Lok Sabha seat in the 2021 Assembly elections, to say the party is hopeful of wresting Palakkad back.
Susheela, 50, a tailor in Palakkad town, says her vote will go to the LDF for its work during the 2018 and 2019 floods, and the Nipah virus and Covid19 crises. "I don’t know much about the Pradhan Mantri schemes,” she adds, while going on to talk about the Kudumbashree programme — the Kerala government’s programme to create networks of women’s self- help groups.
Others too say that the BJP might not pose a challenge -- yet. In the market area of Palakkad town, S Rajan, 52, a lottery seller, says, “It has been an LDF versus UDF battle for so long now.”
However, Sajeev, 48, who runs a bakery in Akathethara, indicates a slight shift. “LDF seems to be struggling with finances and giving out pensions, and has sought to put the blame on the Centre. Earlier the BJP candidate would just contest elections here for the sake of it. That has changed.”
For Nasar K T, 42, who runs a footwear business in Ottapalam, the BJP brings with it "a fear of communalism”.
“We have seen communalism in places like Uttar Pradesh over things like meat... This is not an issue here. In their campaign, the BJP seems to be focusing on schemes. Maybe some are benefitting from them, but not everybody is sure of what they are supposed to get,” he says.