THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Sabarimala issue did not reflect on the outcome of the elections and the people’s mandate is not against the government, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.
He was talking to media persons here on Saturday for the first time since the election results were announced.
“Sabarimala issue is not the reason for the failure. But we never expected this. Though the results are a blow to the LDF, we will try and find out what went wrong. In fact, we couldn’t assess certain factors during the campaign. The failure is temporary and we will overcome it,” Pinarayi said.
He also pointed out the UDF’s win in the state is due to the entry of Rahul Gandhi. “The people of the state wanted to vote out Narendra Modi at the Centre. So they voted for the Congress here. The people might have thought Congress is the better alternative at the power centre.
As I had pointed out earlier, Rahul Gandhi’s candidature in Wayanad did send out a wrong message that the UDF is competing against the Left parties instead of the NDA. The result in Amethi underlined the fact Rahul Gandhi had decided to contest from Wayanad to win from there since he feared defeat in Amethi.