People's Democracy

         Resounding LDF Victory In Kerala

M A Baby

THE Left Democratic Front in Kerala has registered a resounding victory in the 14th Lok Sabha elections by bagging 18 out of the 20 seats. Of these 18, the CPI(M) got 13 seats, including an independent, CPI has 3, Janata Dal (Secular) got one and KC(J) has one. The UDF had to be content with a single seat Ponnami, won by Indian Union Muslim League (IUML). The NDA candidate won the Moovattnpugha seat. Here the LDF candidate stood second while the UDF was relegated to third position. It may be recalled in the 1999 elections the LDF had won only 9 seats. Eranakulam seat was won by the LDF later in a by election, thereby taking the total LDF strength to 10 seats.

The results when seen assembly segment wise show that the LDF leads in 111 seats, the UDF in just 24 seats and the NDA in a mere 5 segments. The Congress has for the first time lost all the seats it contested from the state. The BJP failed to open its account in the state once again, even though, for the first time they were able to garner double-digit percentage of votes - over 12 per cent, which is a result of soft Hindutva policies pursued by A K Antony led UDF, which again was the reason for the victory of an NDA candidates from Kerala. In comparison to the last election here, the UDF candidate this time lost nearly 1.5 lakh vote. Clearly, this entire chunk has gone to the NDA candidate, plus the 47 thousand votes which the BJP got last time formed the basis of the victory of NDA candidate in Moovattupuzha. This means that while the Congress thoroughly got trounced in the hustings in the state, the party and the UDF led by it played a decisively disastrous role for the victory of BJP-supported NDA candidate.

The BJP got a severe jolt when its senior leader in Kerala and union minister O Rajagopal (whom A K Antony used to affectionately and respectfully describe as Kerala’s ambassador in Delhi) got defeated in Thiruvananthapuram. There was a systematic media hype fabricated in support of O Rajagopal, which, however, could not prevent the former chief minister and senior CPI leader P K Vasudevan Nair from winning the seat. Not only did the celebrated BJP minister (who is also a famous devotee of Mata Amrittananda Maya Devi) lose the election but he was also relegated to third position.

The spectacular victory of the LDF in Manjeri constituency is significant due to more than one reason. For the first time Muslim League candidate got defeated here. In 1999, the IUML candidate won with a landslide majority of nearly 1,23,000 votes. However, this time the CPI(M) candidate, T K Hamsa won with a handsome majority of over 47,000 votes.

It is very significant that the blood stained Marad, where series of communal clashes and killings occurred during the UDF regime falls under the Manjeri constituency. So the verdict is a censure of UDF policies in general and IUML stand in particular.

The two women candidates elected this time from the state belong to CPI(M) - C S Sujatha (Mavalikkara) and P Sathidevi (Badagara). The former defeated sitting MP and Congress working committee member Ramesh Chennithala. The latter won with the highest majority in the state this time. The defeat of former minister and speaker V M Sundheeram in Alappuzha who is also the sitting MP at the hands of Dr K S Manoj of CPI(M) is also considered as an major upset. A K Antony who toured the entire 140 assembly constituencies of the state along with most of the state ministers, spreading canards against the CPI(M) and the LDF, after having completed the programme again came back to Alappuzha constituency to canvas for his friend V M Sudheeran. Moreover, violating section VII of the model code of conduct the CM declared many projects, not just relief measures, to lure the sea ravaged fishermen community. All this did not work. It is interesting to note that V M Sudheeran failed to get a majority in spite of Antony’s generous help. which constituency of the CM V M Sudharan failed to get a majority in of the Antony help. CPI(M) central committee member P Karunakaran defeated millionaire Congress candidate in Kasargode with a over 1,08,000 votes. Majority of CPI(M) sitting MPs, A P Abdullkutty (Cannore) N K Krishnadas (Palakkad), S Ajay Kumar (Ottappalam), Sebastian Paul (Ernakulam) K Suresh Kurup (Kottayam) P Rajendran (Kollam) and Varkala Radhakrishnan (Chirayinkeezh) have enhanced their majority substantially. LDF candidates M P Veerandrakumar (JD-S), Chengara Surendran (CPI) and Lonappam Nambadan (CPI-M) captured UDF seats with comfortable majority. Francis George of KC(J) retained his seat with a higher majority of around 70,000 votes this time.

LDF in its present form never had achieved such victory in Kerala. In 1967, the CPI(M) led alliance was able to sweep the state except for Mukundapuram. However Indian Union Muslim League was part of the alliance then. The beauty of the victory this time is that the only seat which Congress (I) won in 1967 is also captured by LDF in the 14th Lok Sabha elections. The defeat of IUML in its citadel - Manjeri - is a shock defeat for UDF and IUML

Another noteworthy defeat of the Congress is in Ernakulam, where UDF fielded a candidate chosen by the Christian church.

The reasons for the unequivocal defeat of Congress and UDF are very evident.

Firstly, with A K Antony and his allies hobnobbing openly and secretly with various communal and castiest forces – which helped it to secure 100 out of 140 seats in the assembly elections three years ago – lost itS steam and impact and more and more sections of people started realising the dangers of such opportunist polices, especially after Marad. Remember that the Lok Sabha constituency in which ‘Marad’ is situated - Manjeri has been lost by IUML to CPI(M).

Secondly, the soft Hindutva polices of A K Antony government, which prompted Praveen Togadia and RSS National camp to praise Kerala chief minister was too much for politically conscious Keralites to appreciate.

Thirdly, the economic policies of A K Antony and UDF were not different from P V Narashimha Rao or A B Vajpayee. Total collapse of industrial (traditional industries in particular) and agricultural sector led to innumerable suicides. Growing unemployment, corruption, atrocities on women etc also contributed to the isolation of UDF government from the people.

The UDF defeat has been so decisive due to two other reasons. The ugly internal bickerings within the Congress and the UDF became reprehensible. The firm commitment of the CPI(M) and the LDF to secular values as well as the fight against the disastrous imperialist initiated globalisation polices gave LDF an edge over Congress(I)- led UDF. The brutal repression let loose on Adivasis, students, youth and women workers etc by Antony government was hated by the people. One adivasi was shot dead by the UDF government, it was the first instance in Kerala. When people demonstrated before police officials demanding a judicial probe, the police used diabolic force to suppress the struggle.

Perhaps the UDF and AK Antony could argue that the Lok Sabha election is on national issues and the state government polices are not tested during these elections. Antony forgets that he himself led a vehicle jatha with the ridiculous name ‘Renaissance Journey’ during which he was invoking local and provincial issues. Not only that, he systematically carried out a vilification campaign against the CPI(M) and the LDF charging them of being an obstacle for the development of the state. He also accused CPI(M) of having taken recourse to violent means. He was also very sure that CPI(M) is politically irrelevant!

People of Kerala could see through the absurdity of these allegations. The fact that the UDF hooligans killed a CPI(M) comrade by setting him on fire, after having doused him with kerosene, in Trissur proved to the people at large that the CPI(M) and LDF cadres are victims of UDF and RSS attacks. The gruesome murder of CPI(M) leader of Allappy Comrade Benny by the RSS goons during the election preparation is another instance.

However the inglorious defeat of K Muraleedharan, former KPCC president-turned-electricity minister in the Vadakkancherry assembly by election is a clear verdict against the Antony government. The CPI(M) district leader Moideen captured that seat in a keenly fought contest. It goes without saying that the particular seat was chosen by UDF leaders with absolute confidence of UDF victory.

This means Congress in Kerala lost all the seats it has contested to the Lok Sabha or to the assembly! For the first time a minister got trounced when he turned to enter the assembly after having been sworn in as a minister!

There were many occasions when Antony had tendered his resignation for various image building reasons on flimsy grounds. If he has any desire to resign at least once for a genuine and justifiable reasons Mr. Antony, please listen — here is an indisputably appropriate opportunity to do so. But we all know that he will not do the right thing at the right time. He is habituated only to do the wrong thing at absolutely unjustifiable time.

The LDF has to accept this historic victory with pride as well as humility, and some of responsibility so that it would be able to further strengthen its rank and file politically as well as organisationally. At the same time it is inevitable that Congress(I) and UDF will slump from crisis to crisis. However the LDF cannot be and should not be complacent over its spectacular success.