Soon after filing his nomination papers from Wayanad, Rahul Gandhi said he will not utter a word against the CPM during his campaign. But the statement is not likely to take the sting out of the Congress-led UDF's anti-Left campaign. With or without Rahul, the Congress in Kerala will go all guns blazing at the Left front given the state's bipolar political scenario.
Ever since campaigning kicked off in the state, the red camp's negligible presence outside Kerala and failure to reclaim lost ground in West Bengal and Tripura have been used by the Congress to paint them as irrelevant on the national stage. Be it booth-level conventions with no more than 50 people or virally replicated WhatsApp propaganda stories meant for thousands to read, attempts have been going on to ostracise the Left during the Lok Sabha polls.
Now with the Congress president's candidature from Wayanad, the communists will have to face more attacks from the UDF over their shrinking influence and lack of electoral success in the country. Luckily for them, the leadership is all set to face the challenge.
The question posed by the Congress is straightforward - if the LDF is to join hands with the Congress at the Centre to dethrone the BJP, then why waste a vote on them when the people can directly back UDF candidates? Also, what impact can the CPM possibly make in parliament with no more than 15 MPs?
Elsa Jacob, a journalist from Kerala, says their numbers don't really matter.
"The BJP has carried out pro-Hindutva and anti-democratic actions in the past five years. Only the CPM adopted a political line which dissects and exposes such actions. Their MPs in both Houses played a major role in confronting these policies. Meanwhile, the Congress MPs from Kerala have never been so vocal. If the talk is on opposing the BJP, then the Left has had a vocal presence in Delhi. They have earned my faith through action," she said.
It's federalism vs BJP
LDF convenor and senior CPM leader A Vijayaraghavan says the Congress is showing itself to be a great opportunist and terrible visionary by trotting out this line and trying to be dismissive of the Left.
He stresses that the Congress is no more the BJP's archrival and in reality it is several regional parties in their respective states who are the true players.
"Be it UP, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, AP, Tamil Nadu or Telangana, those leading the anti-BJP front in all these places are regional powers who want to sustain Indian federalism. The Congress is either a small player or nobody in all the big states. How can they talk about the Left's irrelevance when they can do nothing without the support of these parties," he asks.
Candidates matter
Many voters draw attention to another often forgotten consideration. For them, more than political affiliations, it is the candidate who matters. And here the Left holds a big advantage, they say.
All of these people want their region to develop. The MP fund utilisation and promises put forth are not taken lightly by these Keralites and they don't easily forget what was offered to them by their representatives last time.
"Instead of pointing a finger at the Left's existence, why doesn't the Congress talk about the achievements of their sitting MPs? If they want constructive criticism they can start with evaluating the Pinarayi government. Left or right, people judge if they did a corruption-free and pro-development job in the constituencies. And if the LDF's dwindling numbers are a concern, then so is the inflow of Congress leaders to the BJP," said Sudeep, a voter from Alappuzha.
Why this strategy?
So is the Congress strategy of dismissing the Left as irrelevant really working among the people? The eagerness the Left camp shows in countering the allegation shows they have not taken the charge lightly.
Political analyst and senior journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, for one, feels Kerala voters will not jump to conclusions since they are not just literate but politically aware too.
"This rivalry has been there for so long and has spread even to the smaller players who are vital for both the fronts. The only thing that is different this time is that both these parties are against the Modi government in Delhi and want to defeat it. At the same time, despite all their efforts to make their presence felt in Kerala, the BJP is still a marginal force and thus the ultimate winner will be the one among the two coalitions which can win over the people," he said.
CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran says the plan is not going to work. He said the Congress even tried using religion as a plank in the polls to the local bodies that were conducted immediately after the Sabarimala issue but failed to make any headway.
"During the assembly polls, the then CM Oommen Chandy himself had said the contest is between the Congress and the BJP and we are not even in the picture. What happened when the ballot boxes were opened? They both (Congress and BJP) keep saying this each time an election approaches but get rejected by the people time and time again. We will win the maximum seats possible and the people will back us. All that matters is the fall of the NDA and we don't care about anything else," he told Express.