The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress seemed to vie to politically exploit the purported rumblings of resentment in the Kerala Congress (M) over Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s allegedly dismissive remark against Thomas Chazhikadan, MP, at a recent Navakerala Sadas meeting in Pala.
Mr. Chazhikadan had sought to raise the travails of rubber farmers beset by low crop prices at the meeting. Mr. Vijayan endeavoured to correct Mr. Chazhikadan on stage. He maintained that the Cabinet’s public outreach programme aimed at appraising the public about the impediments to transforming Kerala into a modern knowledge economy and welfare state and transcended the bounds of a grievance redressal forum.
KPCC president K. Sudhakaran obliquely targeted KC(M) chairperson Jose. K. Mani, who shared the stage, for “failing” to defend Mr. Chazhikadan.
He suggested that KC(M) leadership appeared to have a subaltern status in the LDF and seemed to acquiesce in Mr. Vijayan’s “flaying” of Mr. Chazhikadan for airing the anxiety of 12 lakh rubber farmers in the party’s heartland in Pala.
Mr. Sudhakaran sought to open old wounds by reminding KC(M) workers that CPI(M) had mercilessly hounded the party’s founder, K. M. Mani, in the 2016 bar bribery case and buried the hatchet to defect to the ruling front.
Christian votes
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which desires to harness Christian votes in Central Kerala ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, moved to manipulate reports of bitterness in the KC(M) over Mr. Mani’s alleged failure to defend Mr. Chazhikadan.
BJP State President K. Surendran said Mr. Vijayan had disrespected a key ally representing a crucial electoral bloc by disparaging Mr. Chazhikadan, who had attempted to flag the woes of his constituents, a majority of them rubber farmers.
In contrast, Mr. Surendran claimed Prime Minister Modi treated his political allies in the NDA with respect, concern and decorum.
The BJP’s outreach to Christian votes hinged primarily on the assumption that the Church in Central and North Kerala increasingly hewed to the security and economic agenda of the Modi government.
KC(M) leader and Irrigation Minister Roshy Augustine said Mr. Chazhikadan was well within his rights to flag the issues of rubber farmers. He denied insinuations that Mr. Vijayan had censured Mr. Chazhikadan for airing the woes of cultivators and maintained that the Chief Minister had merely restated the purpose of Navakerala Sadas.
