Statescan
Kerala Newsletter
Is Kerala heading for an early poll?
By Kavalam Sasikumar
Is Kerala heading for an early poll? Political observers think so. Chief Minister Oomman Chandy is in favour of an early assembly poll and he is advocating for this cause with the Congress high command.
It is understood that the recent local bodies election results forced him to think in this direction. Since the fast-changing political situation in the state is unpredictable and the next six months may be very crucial for him, he is putting his early poll idea in front of all the sections concerned.
The difference of votes between the ruling UDF and the opposition LDF in the recent local bodies election was only two per cent, according to the government statistics. This gives courage to Chief Minister Oomman Chandy. However, the ruling UDF is in a bad shape. The leading party?Congress?suffered a split when a major section separated under the leadership of former Chief Minister and forceful leader K. Karunakaran. In addition to this, another alliance partner T.M Jacob, who is a forceful Xian community leader, also went along Karunakaran with his entire party. The ruling UDF is facing criticism from every corner in the state. The change of guard from A.K. Antony to Oomman Chandy not only did not make any difference in the field of governance and efficiency but also it enforced the communal polarisation between the minority and majority communities. During the regime of Antony, communal forces would not interfere so openly in formation of government policies and their implementations. Though there are so many objections and outcries from various parts, coterie of Oomman Chandy is implementing its communal agenda very openly.
The ruling UDF is in a bad shape. The leading party?Congress?suffered a split when a major section separated under the leadership of former Chief Minister and forceful leader K. Karunakaran.
The breakaway group led by K. Karunakaran is now with communist-led LDF and is trying to woo the majority Hindu community. These efforts will help the communists in getting the majority votes, though they are against Hindus. In addition, the organisations such as SNDP and NSS working for the prosperity of the respective castes are also very much in the race.
The Bharatiya Janata Party performed well in the recent local bodies election and is very enthusiastic to participate in the next assembly election. After the glorious victory in the recent election, in which it got 18 per cent of vote share, it is chalking out the booth-level strategy for attaining the maximum number of votes in the assembly election. Moreover, the LDF especially the communists are making efforts to malign the image of the ruling front.
Considering all these factors, Chandy is very keen to go to poll at the earliest. During his last visit to New Delhi, he put forward his plan for an early election and Congress President Sonia Gandhi has supposedly given the green signal for this.
