Thiruvananthapuram: Kathua and Unnao rape cases have started haunting BJP in poll-bound Chengannur.
Their only relief is that the Election Commission is yet to announce the poll date and they have time to beat the blues.
They are now banking on the social media-triggered hartal rampage and the Varapuzha custodial death to divert attention.
A senior BJP leader said party workers were a harried lot now as people started venting their ire over the rapes.
But a BJP general secretary denied this, saying some vested interests were trying to trigger communal tension.
“Now the situation has changed, and there is no backlash as such," he told DC.
"The fight is between CPM and BJP. ”They have got reports from New Delhi that in all likelihood the polling will be in the last week of May.
Alappuzha District Congress Committee president M. Liju said the BJP was no longer on the scene.“With the latest rape incidents hogging headlines, BJP camp is very silent," he told DC.
"Their candidate P. S. Sreedharan Pillai is grim as he has realised that he is never going to retain his 2016 vote share of 29 percent. Congress candidate D. Vijayakumar is a household name, and he knows the people for five decades.”
Mr Pillai belongs to Venmony village in Chengannur taluk, though he lives in Kozhikode.
Meanwhile, BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan demanded an NIA probe on Monday's hartal which saw widespread attacks in Malabar. He alleged that the people who instigated violence in the guise of hartal are hooligans belonging to CPM.
