Congress leader Padmaja Venugopal’s headline-grabbing political migration to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has arguably landed the Congress party in the doldrums in Kerala.
Furthermore, the desertion of the scion of a prominent Congress family that dominated State politics for long has buoyed the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the BJP, though for starkly divergent reasons.
For one, Ms. Venugopal’s desertion seemed to have played into the Communist Party of India (Marxist) ‘s [CPI(M)] Lok Sabha election campaign narrative that the ideological line between the Congress and the BJP was blurred.
The CPI(M) has recurrently portrayed the Congress as “soft Hindutva” to discomfit the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), a critical United Democratic Front (UDF) ally, and undermine the Opposition’s traditional standing among minorities, particularly Muslims.
For one, the CPI(M) had pointedly attacked Shashi Tharoor, MP, for allegedly making an anti-Palestine remark at an IUML rally in pursuance of the LDF’s pro-minority pivot.
The CPI(M) also repeatedly spotlighted the Congress’s alleged “ambivalence” about attending the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya to score brownie points with minority community voters.
Hindu majoritarian credo: Govindan
CPI(M) Kerala State secretary M.V. Govindan said Ms. Venugopal’s defection underscored the party’s case that “a vote for the Congress in Kerala was tantamount to a referendum for the BJP.”
He stated that the Congress lacked a strong ideological guardrail against succumbing to the BJP’s money power and Hindu majoritarian credo.
Mr. Govindan said the BJP has quickly won over Congress MPs, MLAs, and local body institution members in other States using corporate money power and the Damoclean threat of investigation and incarceration by Central agencies.
He somewhat sarcastically noted that the successors of two prominent Congress leaders in Kerala, the late K. Karunakaran and A.K. Antony, both former Chief Ministers, had deserted the party for the BJP. “More Congress leaders in Kerala are ready to follow suit at the drop of a hat”, he said.
LDF convener E.P. Jayarajan urged the IUML to acknowledge that Ms. Venugopal’s defection had rendered the Congress’s secular credentials highly suspect in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. He claimed that the IUML could fare better at the hustings by showing the confidence to go it alone.
The CPI(M) also appeared poised to exploit Ms. Venugopal’s change of political allegiance to shore up its electoral chances in the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency currently held by her brother, K. Muraleedharan, MP. Minorities, chiefly Muslims, constitute a crucial electoral bloc in the parliamentary segment.
Seemingly sensing the CPI(M)‘s gambit to flip minority votes in the LDF’s favour in Vadakara, Mr. Muraleedharan made it a point to be the first Congress leader to refer to Ms. Venugopal defection and disavow her in strident terms that appeared to border on the personal.
BJP buoyed
Ms. Venugopal’s defection has also buoyed the BJP’s State leadership. The BJP felt that the desertion has further enfeebled the Congress and pushed the BJP’s claim to be the actual Opposition in Kerala a few notches up the scale.
BJP State president K. Surendran said the Congress was no longer in the reckoning in the Lok Sabha polls. “The fight is between the CPI(M) and the BJP”, he claimed.
Mr. Surendran said somewhat cryptically that several more prominent Congress leaders had held secret parleys with the party’s State leadership. “They included leaders who have harangued Ms. Venugopal for joining Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development and welfare bandwagon. It’s only a matter of time before the Congress implodes”, he said.
The BJP perceived that Ms. Venugopal’s political flip-flop would advantage the party in the high-stakes Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency where its high-profile candidate, Suresh Gopi, is standing again for the seat.
For decades, Ms. Venugopal has focussed her politics on her father’s home turf in Thrissur district. She could confidently count scores of Congress workers in the locality as her loyalists.
Congress in damage control mode
Meanwhile, the Congress has moved into damage control mode. The Congress’s putative candidate from Thrissur, T.N. Prathapan, appeared to jump the gun by kickstarting his campaign from K. Karunakaran’s memorial in Thrissur before the party’s high command formally announced its candidate list.
The Congress’s District Congress Committee in Thrissur met to consider the emerging situation and reaffirm the loyalty of grassroots-level functionaries, including bloc and Mandalam presidents, known to be close to Ms. Venugopal.
Her defection came at a politically inopportune moment for the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) leadership. The Congress has had a challenging week.
Its allies, including the IUML, have criticised the party’s leadership for “allowing” the CPI(M) and the BJP to seize the initiative on the campaign trail by delaying the formal announcement of Congress’s Lok Sabha candidates.
Moreover, Ms. Venugopal’s high-profile defection reportedly came as a bolt from the blue for KPCC president K. Sudhakaran and Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan who are in New Delhi to formalise the party’s Lok Sabha candidates.
