After a long wait, the BJP has opened its account in Kerala as O Rajagopal made a spectacular victory in Nemam defeating CPM’s sitting MLA V Sivankutty
T Satisan
A new script in Kerala’s political history! First time in the history of Kerala, BJP’s lotus bloomed; BJP’s senior leader and former union minister O Rajagopal has won the assembly election from Nemam constituency, near the capital city of Thiruvananthapuram. He defeated his immediate opponent V Sivankutty, sitting MLA of CPM, securing 67,813 votes where as Sivankutty and the UDF candidate bagged 59,142 and 13,860 respectively. Thus, BJP has opened its account in the state assembly.
The victory of Rajagopal, popularly known as Rajettan, is a great leap forward for the state unit of BJP. Because, the party has been doing its level best to win an assembly or Lok Sabha seat since its very inception in 1980. The case was the same with the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the precursor of BJP, as well. Both parties even found it difficult to win a panchayat or municipality or corporation election. When BJP turned ruling party in Palakkad Municipality and principal opposition party in Thrippunithura Municipality with 13 seats and Thiruvananthapuram Corporation with 35 corporators in the last year’s local self governing bodies election, it was a surprise to the people of Kerala. When Rajagopal lost to Shashi Tharoor in the LS Election of 2014, for a narrow margin, people reached the conclusion that BJP is a party like a vehicle which never starts! During the assembly election campaign, leaders of both CPM-led LDF and Congress-led UDF kept on saying that BJP will not make it into the assembly. Veteran Congress leader AK Antony even went to the extent of saying that people of Kerala would never vote for the win of a BJP candidate. He thundered that if a BJP man wanted to enter the assembly hall he would have to do so carrying an MLA’s pass to enter the visitor’s gallery! Several people took it as an anti-democratic statement.
BJP had alleged as soon as the polling was over that LDF and UDF had implemented cross voting as per their agreement. BJP workers believe that this cross voting pattern resulted in the defeat of senior leaders Kummanam Rajasekharan in Vattiyoorkkavu and Adv PS Sreedharan Pillai in Chengannur and BJP leader K Surendran in Manjeswaram where he lost by 89 votes. His UDF opponent PB Abdul Razak of Indian Union Muslim League had told Janam TV about a month ago that UDF would not mind having some “adjustments” with LDF to make sure that BJP does not come out victorious. The same pattern has taken place in Palakkad.
Since Rajagopal has survived all the evil designs of both LDF and UDF, his win is sweeter than expected. Rajagopal told the media that his victory is a reply to AK Antony who tried to ridicule BJP. BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekahran told that Rajettan’s is a prestigious victory in Kerala politics. BJP is the party of the people of Kerala. He added that it is the victory of all constituents of the NDA. BJP is entering the assembly hall sans any visitor’s pass.
BJP has come second in 7 constituencies, viz., Palakkad, Manjeswaram, Kazhakuttom, Vattiyoorkavu, Kasargod, Chathannoor and Malampuzha. Malampuzha is the constituency of CPM veteran VS Achuthanandan.
Now, Congress has cut a sorry figure. Four ministers of their UDF alliance could not win the elections. JD (U) and RSP, the two constituents of the UDF, could not send a single MLA to the assembly this time.
