Kochi: The repeated invitation the Bharatiya Janata Party is extending to the Kerala Congress (Mani) is being viewed more as a signal to the state's numerically strong Christian community rather than to the regional party which is going through a political crisis now.
BJP state president V. Muraleedharan said in Kozhikode on Monday that the party was open to entering into an alliance with the Kerala Congress, which is widely perceived as having the backing of the churches, in civic bodies. He had made a similar statement three days ago, too.
"The fresh invitation has come after the meeting of the top brass of the RSS and the BJP in Aluva recently," said an ideologue close to the Sangh Parivar. "It cannot be seen as a gesture by the state leadership alone. It must have the blessings of the RSS also," he said.
The BJP central leadership has got the inputs from the state that electoral victory, especially in the Assembly and the Lok Sabha elections, would be well nigh impossible unless it gets at least 15 per cent votes from the minorities, he said.
That the BJP chose to ignore the ignominious political situation that the Kerala Congress has found itself after the resignation of its supreme leader K. M. Mani on charges of corruption shows it was aiming not just at the party.
The BJP polled only 14 per cent votes despite having got into an alliance with about two dozen community organizations in the recent local body elections.
It is widely acknowledged that the party got a sizeable number of votes from the Nair community though it had failed to strike a political deal with the powerful Nair Service Society (NSS).
Given that the BJP secured 10.3 per cent votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, and that it failed to increase it substantially in spite of the alliance with the other organizations, especially SNDP, the party needs a new equation with a minority community in the state if it has to increase its political prospects significantly.
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