The previous Assembly elections in Kerala was held on April 13, 2011 and if that is taken into consideration there are exactly 100 days before the political parties to gear up for next elections. If Election Commission decides to hold elections exactly on the same day as the previous one, then Kerala will go to polls on eve of Vishu.
However, there are still 57 days to decide that. On two previous occasions the Election Commission had declared the dates of polls in Kerala on March 1. The announcement is expected to be made at press conference in Delhi on that day.
Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Bengal, Assam and Puthuchery will become venue for intense political battle. If Bihar elections which were held a few months ago managed to grab the attention of the entire nation, this time around the focus will be on five states. However, BJP barring Assam doesn’t have a strong presence in other States to grab power.
In Kerala, the RSS with the help of BJP leadership is doing political experiments with an eye on the upcoming assembly elections and both fronts are closely watching the developments. The elections this year will be unique as BJP is trying to rewrite the picture that elections in Kerala are generally between Marxist parties and anti Marxist parties.
There is a planned strategy behind Sanghparivar leaders’ boast that this election will be between BJP and anti BJP parties. That Vellappally Natesan’s Bhartiya Dharma Jana Sena was formed with the blessings of RSS and BJP top leadership is an open secret.
However, CPM feels that the improved show by BJP in local body elections will not help the party in the assembly elections. Though BJP got 15 percent of the votes, LDF had come first in 88 assembly seats while UDF came first in 52 seats and this is based on figures in district panchyats, corporations and municipalities.
Things were different in 2014, Lok Sabha elections. UDF were ahead in 80 seats while LDF was ahead in 56 and BJP in four seats. Pinarayi Vijayan in his Kerala yatra will be training his guns on BJP-Vellappally Natesan alliance. The CPM was initially wary of crticising SNDP leader Vellappally Natesan and had refrained from doing it. However, the other day, Pinarayi without naming anyone criticised the unholy alliance of BJP and Natesan.
The Congress Party is claiming that it was the first party in the country that had organized a State wide yatra to highlight the dubious intentions of Sangh Parivar. Chief Minister Oomen Chandy will inaugurate the yatra in Kasargod on Monday. The main intention of the Janaraksha Yatra undertaken by KPCC president is to highlight intolerance shown by BJP.
Though the opposition was keeping on highlight the bar bribery case, the UDF government closed down 700 bars and it received a short in the arm when the liquor policy was accepted by the Supreme Court. The congress party will hit hard at the opposition during the yatra saying that there is no merit in the allegations raised in the bar bribery case.
A meeting will be convened in Kochi today to give final touches to the Kerala Yatra undertaken by BJP president Kummanam Rajashekaran. The LDF meeting, which was supposed to meet today has been postponed following the death of A.B. Bardhan.
Bardhan had surprised his party and CPM by stating that left parties should be part of the government to keep Modi out of power and there is no harm in forging an alliance with Mamta Banerjee. Though Left-Socialist alliance didn’t happen in Bihar, CPM’s latest statements are in keeping with Bardan’s controversial statement of 2014. You don’t need 100 days in politics for turning things upside down; all you need is just one day.
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