Kottayam: It would be hardly surprising if the BJP tries to make some political mileage out of the success of India's Moon mission Chandrayaan-3 in the general elections due next year. The saffron party has already made it a poll pitch in Kerala’s Puthuppally assembly constituency where it has been, going by previous election data, a non-player till last election.
The BJP has all the more reasons to flaunt ISRO’s moon feat in Puthuppally, a largely rural constituency because the September 5 bypoll there is being held to elect the successor of Oommen Chandy, the Congress stalwart who held the seat for a record 53 years at a stretch. The BJP has set a narrative linking the Chandrayaan Mission with the infamous 1994 ISRO spy scam, which Oommen Chandy and his faction in the Congress allegedly used to settle political scores.
The BJP’s stance is that India’s space research hit a huge roadblock with the case and the purported delay in a moon mission like Chandrayaan was a result of the fabricated scam.
“Why did it take so many years to take out our Chandrayaan mission? The ISRO spy case, in which Nambi Narayanan was trapped, broke out at a time when he was developing cryogenic technology for the country. The case caused an inordinate delay in the research in the field. We know the case was played up by the then Puthuppally MLA for political gains,” BJP spokesperson Narayanan Namboothiri told Onmanorama on Sunday. Congress stalwart K Karunakaran had to resign as the chief minister of Kerala following the case as the rival ‘A’ faction led by Antony and Oommen Chandy allegedly made use of it to unseat the former from power.
Namboothiri said the party was highlighting this issue in its poll rallies in the constituency. He also blamed the CPM for not supporting India’s space research. “The CPM’s stance was that rocket launches won’t end poverty,” he said.
The BJP’s argument in Puthuppally is that the Congress and the CPM are playing a ‘friendly match’ in Puthuppally as the two parties are part of the INDIA alliance at the national level.
“For the first time, the two parties have come together in a formal alliance and they have the same stances on several issues in Kerala also. Hence this is a contest to hoodwink the people of Puthuppally,” the spokesperson said.
BJP Kottayam district president Lijin Lal is the party’s candidate in Puthuppally. He is taking on Congress’ Chandy Oommen and CPM’s Jaick C Thomas.
The BJP's vote share in Puthuppally was 8.88 per cent in 2021 when N Hari was its candidate. The saffron party's best performance in Puthuppally was in 2016 when George Kurian collected 15, 993 votes (11.93 per cent).
