Hindu backlash against UDF minorityism
S Chandrasekhar
Giving a stern warning to the Congress-Muslim League dominated UDF which is hell-bent on pampering Muslim vote-banks, Hindu voters of Neyyattinkara, hit back by strongly backing BJP stalwart and former Union Minister O Rajagopal, who polled 30,507 votes and managed to improve on his 2004 Lok Sabha vote share of 28,000 in the constituency.
For almost one hour from 8 AM to 9 AM O Rajagopal led, putting the CPM and Congress in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. He came first in 22 of the 144 booths gaining majority in Athianoor, Perumpazhavur and Neyattinkara Municipality areas. The Congress overtook Rajagopal in the Nadar dominated areas of Kulathoor Karode, Chengal and eventually Selvaraj won by a margin of 6,334 votes pushing Rajagopal to the third place.
Despite a 10 per cent increase in voting which will work to approximately 15,000 votes, the LDF vote came down by almost 10,000. Normally whenever there is a voting increase, the CPM also gains out it. But here while CPM vote went down by 10,000 and Congress vote went up by only 4,500, the BJP vote increased by almost 24,000, a fivefold compared to last year's Assembly poll when BJP got only 6,500 votes.
