Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday said the poll setback is temporary and the mandate is not against the Govern-ment.
Mr Vijayan said a section of voters was misled into believing that Rahul Gandhi would miss the chance to form Govern-ment in case of a shortfall in numbers. Also certain sections succeeded in misleading the faithful on the question of matters of faith.
The Chief Minister den-ied Sabarimala impact on results. The Government could not have acted differently on Sabarimala as it is bound by the Supr-eme Court verdict. Chief Minister said he didn’t believe that Sabarimala issue affected the LDF adversely. Had the issue affected the electoral outcome then the BJP would have been the biggest beneficiary.
However, BJP candidate came third in Pathama-nthitta constiutency . The BJP was hopeful of wresting the Pathamthitta seat.
It was the responsibility of the government to imp-lement the Supreme Cou-rt verdict on Sabarimala . No government could escape from that responsibility. Be it any Chief Mi-nister, he would have done the same thing. The Cent-ral government had asked the state to take steps including imposition of prohibitory orders.
There was huge effort to create misunderstanding among the believers about the belief and related issues. What all happened as part of creating this understanding would be examined in detail.
He said the result was not people’s mandate or anger against the LDF Government in the state. “As far as LDF is concer-ned the results are only a temporary setback and none should have the misconception that it is permanent,” he added.
A section of people in Kerala who were against the return of Narendra Modi Government at the Centre voted for Congre-ss. They were also worri-ed about the future of the country. Many of these were also voting for LDF traditionally. They may have felt that Congress could give leadership to an alternative government to Modi. That’s how they took a stand to vote for the Congress-led UDF in the state, he said.
“There are many factors for the electoral setback. These included factors which could not be understood during the time of campaign. All these issu-es will be examined in detail,” the Chief Mini-ster said.
Mr Vijayan said the elections were to the Lok Sabha and there was a feeling among the people that they should vote for Congress. The candidature of Rahul Gandhi from Wayanad strengthened this feeling further. “When Rahul Gandhi decided to contest from here, we asked him as to who was he fighting against. His candidature would only send a message that the Left should be destroyed,” he said.
The Chief Minister said everyone has now understood that Rahul Gandhi came to Wayanad in sea-rch of a safe seat where he can win. “We didn’t go to the extent of campaigning that it was due to the fear of defeat in Amethi that he chose to contest from Wayanad. We refrai-ned from saying this as it would have helped the BJP,” he said.
Mr Vijayan said Congr-ess could not win even a single seat in 13 states. In nine states it has just a seat each.
It’s not even been weeks since Cong-ress came to power in Madhya Pradesh, Rajast-han and Chattisgarh whe-re the party had claimed of high possibility. What happened there? In Mad-hya Pradesh one seat, no seat in Rajasthan and just two seats in Chhattisgarh. This is the condition of Congress today.
There was a feeling that if Congress does not get more seats than the BJP the president would invite the latter to form the government. This propaganda prompted people to vote for Congress.
‘No change in style of functioning’
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday said there was no need for him to change his style of functioning.
He was reacting to questions from media persons about the criticism that his style of functioning was also one of the factors behi-nd the LDF defeat. “I have reached here beca-use of this style and there is no intention to change this either,” he said.
On the allegations about his arrogance, the Chief Minister said everyone knew who was arrogant. “People know who has arrogance. They will evaluate,” he said.The Chief Minster rejected the Opposition demand for resignation saying it was not a verdict against him or the LDF government which continues to enjoy popular support. “Such demand is raised whenever the ruling party or ruling front loses a election, “ he said.
Mr Vijayan said there was no erosion in the people’s support to the LDF Government . The people are not seeing the results as a criticism of the government. The government has good acceptance among the people. Kerala will prove this mass support whenever it is required.
On NSS stand, the Chief Minister said the organisation maintained equidistance policy in this election.
