Journalism of Courage
The result of the Puthuppally Assembly bypoll is a severe jolt for the Kerala BJP. Its candidate and Kottayam district secretary G Lijin Lal managed to get only 5.02% of the polled votes, against the 61.38% vote share of the winner, the Congress’s Chandy Oommen, and 32.49% votes bagged by the CPI(M)’s Jaick C Thomas.
In the party’s worst showing in the constituency since 2011, Lal got only 6,558 votes, against 11,694 in 2021.
Given that the bypoll was held soon after several Opposition parties had cobbled together the INDIA coalition at the national level, the BJP’s main campaign issue was the dichotomy of a direct fight between the CPI(M) and Congress in Kerala, while the parties maintained bonhomie outside the state.
Hoping to improve its show at Puthuppally, the BJP had held outreach programmes aimed at the influential Christian community in the constituency. However, the violence in Manipur — which was perceived as Christian Kuki-Zomis suffering at the hands of the majority Hindu Meiteis — is believed to have dampened the party’s efforts at attracting Christian voters at Puthuppally.
The BJP also tried to exploit Hindu sentiments by attacking the CPI(M) over Speaker A N Shamseer’s remarks regarding Lord Ganesha, but the controversy appears to have helped the Congress more. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections too, held in the backdrop of the controversy over young women being allowed entry at Sabarimala temple, the BJP’s efforts to stoke anti-CPI(M) sentiments had worked to the Congress-led UDF’s advantage.
The BJP had gone all out for the bypoll, forming a 17-member group under the leadership of the party’s Kerala prabhari, Prakash Javadekar. State saha-prabhari and Rajya Sabha member Radha Mohandas Agarwal had camped at Puthuppally and led the grassroots campaign. Senior leaders, including Union ministers Rajeev Chandrasekhar and V Muraleedharan, addressed family gatherings at booth level, especially of those who had benefited from Central government schemes. Congress veteran A K Antony’s son Anil Antony, who defected to the BJP some time ago and was immediately made the party’s national secretary, also campaigned extensively to woo Christian voters.
In the 2021 Assembly elections, BJP candidate N Hari had got 8.87% of the votes polled at Puthuppally. In 2016, when the party had fielded its Christian face, George Kurian, it had received 11.93% of the votes polled.
BJP state president K Surendran argued that the bypoll result reflected strong anti-government sentiments, besides a sympathy wave in favour of the departed Oommen Chandy. “This is a shock for the Vijayan government. The formation of INDIA at the national level has made the CPI(M) irrelevant in Kerala. The Congress gained from anti-government sentiments,” he said.
