Has the BJP finally arrived in Kerala?

Towards the fag end of the election campaign in Kerala, an advertisement sponsored by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) played out on all channels. The fifth in a series of ads for the Kerala BJP, it had the familiar setting of a tea shop with a small group of youth talking politics. One of the young men is seen professing his newfound love for the BJP to his Modi-fied friend but seems unsure if he should go on and vote for the BJP. “Even if I were to vote for the BJP, would they win from Kerala?”

For a long time, many pro-BJP folks in Kerala have faced the same predicament. A vote for the BJP meant a waste of a vote as BJP candidates contested ritually for third place. However, the 2016 assembly elections saw the contests becoming triangular in a dozen constituencies with the votes polled by the BJP (or their ally BDJS) deciding the winner and loser in many more seats. This was never the case earlier and it presaged a brighter future for the BJP after decades of toil.

Kerala, Politics

May 15, 2019

What is brewing in Kerala Congress?

Within a month of Chairman K M Mani’s passing away, the power struggle to gain control of Kerala Congress (M) has become intense. While, on the one hand, ‘Working Chairman’ P J Joseph is in no mood to let heir apparent Jose K Mani takeover as the next Chairman and leader of the Parliamentary party, the latter has been playing his moves strategically to outwit Joseph in this game of thrones.

Just as he outwitted P J Joseph following a tug of war over the Kottayam seat in the Lok Sabha election, Mani junior seems to be plotting his moves well in advance. It’s good to recall that the K M Mani and P J Joseph factions of Kerala Congress had merged in 2010 at the insistence of the powerful Catholic Church. Back then, the division of organisational positions were unequal with a 2:1 advantage to the Mani faction. Since then, K M Mani (and his faction) has virtually had their say in all matters and P J Joseph was reduced to a pale shadow of his former self.

Kerala, Politics

April 29, 2019

Bogus Voting In Kannur: The Left On The Backfoot

During the mid-2000s, Mamata Banerjee was often asked why her party kept losing to the Left Front despite her grassroots connect in West Bengal. Her standard response was: “scientific rigging”. In the other Left bastion down south—Kerala—allegations of “scientific rigging” (or scientific bogus voting) has been a common refrain by the Congress in the Marxist strongholds of Kannur and Kasargod.

Gone are the days of wanton booth capturing after the replacement of ballot papers with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Yet, people who didn’t mind cutting corners to win seem to have continued to find ways to perpetuate such subversive practices. In many polling booths in North Kerala, particularly in Marxist “party villages” (a euphemism for a village where only the CPI (M)’s writ runs) in Kannur, the very high turnout often evoked suspicion in the past but was passed off as routine for a “politically conscious” electorate.

Opinion, Politics

December 13, 2018

A Congress-Mukt Northeast

Amidst the Congress comeback in India’s Hindi heartland and myriad analyses surrounding it, the results from its last bastion in the Northeast seems to have largely escaped attention. With the Congress loss in Mizoram, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fulfilled its oft-repeated goal of a “Congress-Mukt Northeast”. Although the BJP’s gains are incremental in the state, it opened its account with a solitary win to register close to eight percent vote share in the overwhelmingly Christian-majority state.

Congress won merely 5 seats, a loss of 29 seats from 2013. But the party would take heart in the fact that its vote share hasn’t fallen proportionately. The Mizoram National Front (MNF) led by rebel leader Zoramthanga was back in power in the state riding on the anti-incumbency wave. A third force—Zoram people’s Movement (ZPM)—has also emerged in the election in the bipolar polity of Mizoram. The ZPM, formed barely a year before the elections, had their candidates contesting as independents winning 8 seats and coming second in another 9 seats to make a huge impact on the elections—with a vote share of 23%.

Opinion, Politics

December 18, 2017

Modi won Gujarat but lost the battle of perception

Gujarat has voted the BJP back yet again. It is another matter that Amit Shah’s ambitious ‘Mission 150’ came a cropper. The Indian National Congress has improved its tally by a fair margin but didn’t do well enough to cross the line. Despite the huge anti-incumbency, farm distress, Patel agitation and backlash on account of demonetisation and GST, Congress still came up short. So, how do we read this result?

For the BJP, a narrow win is a huge wake-up call a year with just a year left for the Lok Sabha elections. A few results changing here and there would have turned the election on its head despite the difference in vote shares. They can also heave a sigh of relief that notwithstanding the tough challenge presented by a rejuvenated opposition, they still won the state on the back of Prime Minister Modi’s final push.

National, Opinion, Politics

October 20, 2017

Diwali Musings in Delhi

Culture shocks are not uncommon to Indians when they travel abroad. These shocks are experienced even more frequently and regularly by people travelling from one part of the country to another. That could also be the result of conditioning and the resultant stereotypes about people from different cultures and states.

Delhi is a city that has assimilated people from all over and nobody in particular lays claim to it unlike other Indian metropolises. The Punjabi influence on many aspects of the city is unmissable but the place is still largely cosmopolitan in character. Partition has had a lot of say in the makeup of the city’s population.

For many people who come from afar and live here on account of their profession or education, it takes a while to negotiate the city and get used to it. Many working professionals who are short on time and lead insular lives never get to know the city.

Culture, Society