Preventing BJP from electoral success is the only agenda for the LDF and UDF in the Kerala Assembly elections. Wherever the BJP has an edge, the LDF and UDF are coming together through backdoor deals, so that one contesting party withdraws its candidature and unofficially supports the other. Earlier, this was branded as a conspiracy theory, but now it is becoming evident as the BJP’s challenge against Communist forces strengthens and confronts them head-on.
To prove this, last week, SDPI candidate K.M. Ashraff withdrew from the contest in the Manjeswaram constituency, where BJP leader K. Surendran is set to win.
In 2016, Surendran lost by a margin of 89 votes. In 2021, it was 845. SDPI leaders stated that the withdrawal is in the light of survey results indicating that the BJP would be the beneficiary if the UDF and SDPI contest separately.
The SDPI state president has reportedly stated that the UDF (Congress-led United Democratic Front) leaders had contacted them.
Now, SDPI has declared its support to the LDF (CPM-led Left Democratic Front) candidate V. Sivankutty, the CPM minister in the Pinarayi cabinet. The set target is to defeat BJP’s Rajiv Chandrasekhar.
It is to be remembered that SDPI supported the Congress-led UDF during the last Lok Sabha polls (2024) and the Palakkad by-election to the State Assembly.
SDPI state president C.P.A. Latheef said that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has not stated that his party does not need their (SDPI’s) support, and that it is a welcome step. This latest development comes amid Congress’s allegations of an SDPI-CPM deal.
SDPI supported the LDF/CPM candidate Sivankutty even in the last Assembly elections held in 2021. Nemom is a pro-BJP constituency. Last time, survey results showed that the BJP and CPM were in a neck-to-neck fight, while the UDF/Congress was in a distant third position. Then SDPI took an anti-BJP stand and supported the CPM. Latheef said that the election results vindicated their stand, as the CPM won the Nemom seat.
SDPI took a pro-LDF line. They said it was because they see a general trend in favour of the UDF. C.P.A. Latheef complained that the LoP V.D. Satheesan still maintains untouchability towards them, and that he does not know why it is so. He said Satheesan, the UDF, and the Muslim League should answer this question.
Earlier, Pinarayi Vijayan did not give a proper answer when media persons asked whether the LDF would state that it does not need SDPI votes.
On the other hand, he said that the LDF is against all communal parties, and that the media may ask this question to SDPI leaders.
However, CPM general secretary M.A. Baby said that the LDF does not have any electoral understanding with the SDPI. He added that one cannot reject someone’s vote if they choose to support the LDF.
Now, the picture is clear: The Welfare Party, the political wing of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, supports the UDF. Abdul Nasr Madani’s PDP and the outlawed Popular Front of India’s political arm, SDPI, support the LDF. In other words, what nationalist and Hindu forces have been stating stands vindicated — that Islamic extremist forces support both the UDF and the LDF.
PDP is led by Abdul Nasr Madani, who had been jailed for several years in connection with the Coimbatore bomb blast case of 1998, the Bengaluru serial blast case, and plots in Ahmedabad, Surat, and Jaipur, as well as the 2010 Bengaluru stadium bombing. Still, CPM leader M.A. Baby says that PDP and Madani have changed, and hence his party and the LDF enjoy their support.
