THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Young Congress man K. S. Sabarinadhan’s electoral foray in Aruvikkara is a mixed fare as his 10,128-vote win subsumes a 10 per cent vote slump for the UDF in comparison to his late father G. Karthikeyan’s tally in 2011. But it is unfair to deny Sabarinadhan his hour of glory.
The verdict, which comes less than a year of the next Assembly elections, poses a major question to the Left Democratic Front, which retained its total at 46,320 votes though suffering a 7 per cent vote dip over 2011.
Aruvikkara, perhaps, instructs the LDF to give up sleaze-mongering and jaded slogans because they have not impressed even its traditional voters.
The LDF could not have suffered the 7 per cent erosion in its vote base if its conventional tactics had paid off. This calls for a paradigm shift in the way it practises politics in Kerala.
However much the CPM targeted Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, which went to the extent of a pro-Left activist hurling stones at him in Kannur, Chandy has emerged unscathed.
There is a feeling is he is more sinned against than sinning. The ugly picture of LDF leaders unabashedly sharing the dais with former minister R. Balakrishna Pillai, convicted of corruption, for an anti-corruption crusade exposed the inherent weakness. What if LDF ran its campaign without the tainted Pillai?
The campaign by CPM, which leads the LDF, came unstuck because of its overdependence on the man with anti-party mindset, Mr V. S. Achuthanandan.
What should the voters make of politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan and Mr Achuthanandan not even presenting a photo-op by being on the same platform, if not on the same page?
As long as the Achuthanandan factor remains resolved, the CPM will remain unconvincing as a political party to the unattached voter who is the decisive factor in elections.
The ruling UDF is weighed down by the back-to-back byelection victory. The tussle between Mr Chandy and home minister Ramesh Chennithala, who thinks the former blocks his career advance, is no secret. He recently said the government needs “correctives” whether it wins or loses Aruvikkara. Overvaulting ambition can push leaders to indiscretions.
BJP’s hasty conclusion of having arrived on the scene because of the spurt in vote share may be far-fetched because it owes its victory to the personality of the unsullied O. Rajagopal. All its sterling tallies have to be attributed to the man for all battles. In a state with more than 40 per cent minorities, BJP is just reading too much into Aruvikkara.
