MALAPPURAM: Setting apart the winners and runner up, the other fight in the Vengara Assembly byelection was for the third position between BJP and SDPI, the arch-rival parties. Finally the SDPI candidate K. C. Naseer emerged third with 8,648 votes, letting down the BJP to just 5,728 votes. SDPI has improved its vote share of 3,049 votes in 2016 Assembly elections while the BJP lost 1,327 votes from its 2016 vote share. Both parties have used the same communal card in different hues which was shunned by over 90 per cent of the voters in the constituency, and both parties were equally lashing out at UDF and LDF in the state.
BJP-led Union Government's fascist and anti-minority policies, and incidents of atrocities against Muslims formed the campaign agenda of SDPI. At same time, BJP took terrorism and allegations of luring Muslim youth to radicalism to take on SDPI. One of the major targets of the BJP campaign was SDPI. The BJP national spokesperson Shahnawaz Husain had even referred SDPI a danger to the nation by calling them 'Sudapi', a term used popularly in the state to troll them. The SDPI is content with the performance in the bypoll. "We could gather these many votes with limited resources, and the voters have supported our fight against Hindutva fascism," T. M. Shoukath, district secretary of SDPI said.
