MUNAMBAM: The tiny coastal village of Munambam in Ernakulam district has once again hit the headlines. For more than a year, villagers have been on the warpath to reclaim what they say is their rightful ownership of land. Now, they have voted BJP candidate Kunjumon Augustine to the Pallippuram Grama Panchayat from Ward No. 1.
Organiser has carried several reports on the prolonged agitation by around 500 Christian families seeking to retain ownership of their land, which they allege the Waqf Board has been attempting to take over. The villagers had pinned their hopes on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025—now an Act—which the Narendra Modi government passed in Parliament in April 2025.
Residents of Munambam watched, largely helplessly, as both the ruling CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) appeared to pamper and support the Waqf Board. Both fronts spoke in chorus to the Munambam residents, assuring them, “We are with you…”, while carefully mincing words. Neither was willing to make a direct statement against the Waqf Board, amid intense competition to secure minority vote banks—where minority, in this context, largely refers to Muslims.
The principal stakeholders in the Munambam issue are Christians, and the agitation had the patronage of the Church. Against this backdrop, the victory of the BJP candidate underlines, in bold terms, a political shift, with Christians moving closer to the BJP. The result suggests that a section of the community is no longer inclined to believe what they describe as the pseudo-secular warnings of the LDF and UDF that the BJP would curtail their religious rights.
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