The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Congress experiment a success

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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Congress experiment a success

Girish Menon

Party ignored formula of maintaining communal balance in candidate selection

Election battle remained totally political
LDF failed to overcome popular resentment

Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress party’s resounding victory in the byelections in the Alappuzha, Ernakulam and Kannur Assembly seats makes it clear that the political climate has hardly changed since the Lok Sabha elections held six months ago.

All the three Congress candidates kept their date with victory in a rather convincing manner. While A.P. Abdullakutty stumped everyone with a 12,043 vote victory margin in Kannur over his CPI(M) rival M.V. Jayarajan, Dominic Presentation emphatically established his sway in Ernakulam with a margin of 8,620 votes over his CPI(M) opponent P.N. Seenulal.

A.A. Shukoor’s 4,745 vote margin against CPI candidate G. Krishnaprasad in Alappuzha might not seem as impressive as the other two, but his victory, besides helping the Congress keep a seat which it has made a habit of winning, also provides satisfaction to Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Ramesh Chennithala, who had backed his candidature.

Apart from the personal victories for the candidates, the positive election results successfully concluded the Congress leadership’s experiments that began with the Lok Sabha elections in which three sitting MLAs were fielded. Besides retaining the three seats, the Congress party was successful in ensuring that the election battle remained totally political and its candidate selection did not have any bearing on voter preference.

The party leadership had taken a risk of fielding two Muslim candidates, setting aside the usual formula of maintaining communal equations in candidate selection. It nearly earned the wrath of the Nair Service Society (NSS) for this and had to work hard to assuage the organisation leaders’ sentiments.

Along with the Lok Sabha show, the byelection victories also show that a revamped Congress party has survived its organisational shortcomings. Even though the byelection was fought as a coalition, it was a Congress show from the start to finish.

The Left Democratic Front (LDF), particularly the CPI(M), seemed to be better organised for the byelections, but the results clearly indicate that this is not sufficient to overcome the popular resentment against its rule. When compared to the byelection results in West Bengal, the Kerala CPI(M) leadership can take consolation from the fact that its voter base is still in tact and the situation is not as dismal.

Mr. Abdullakutty’s victory and the margin he got in Kannur will continue to be an irritating factor for the CPI(M) leadership, which had gone all out to block his entry into the Assembly by fielding Mr. Jayarajan, a seasoned campaigner. The controversy over the voters’ list also helped Mr. Abdullakutty a lot by proving to be a rallying point for party activists, even the sceptical ones, to work for his victory.

By winning the Ernakulam seat, Mr. Presentation, in a way, fulfilled his long-standing desire to represent the constituency, which remained outside his grasp because of factional equations that prevailed in the party.

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