KOCHI: The BJP state leadership, which is conducting grassroots-level feedback on the recent general elections from May 10 to 18 across the state, is in high spirits following the reports of the BDJS supporting it wholeheartedly and the chemistry between the local-level leaders of both the parties being excellent.
It is to be noted this is the first general elections in which BJP came to the polls with a proper coalition at its disposal in the state as the BDJS is a force to reckon with following the support it enjoys as the political arm of the powerful SNDP Yogam. Constituency-level BJP meetings have come out with inputs from the grassroots that for the first time in the history of the Lok Sabha elections in the state, the BJP has got a large number of Ezhava votes.
This, according to party local leaders, will mostly be from the CPM kitty and hence the theory that the BJP will gain votes from the Congress does not stand ground. It is to be noted the Ezhava community has been the primary vote bank of the CPM in the state and with the advent of the BDJS, there has been a shift in the voting pattern of the Ezhava community, thereby benefiting the NDA.
There were also several reports that there were differences of opinion between the BJP and BDJS leaders in some constituencies, but the BJP grassroot-level meetings have reported both the parties worked shoulder to shoulder for the victory of party candidates.
The BJP leadership is of the opinion the presence of the BDJS has helped the party’s entry into several places where the BJP never had any presence. This, according to party leaders, is a clear case of social engineering and entry into backward class areas where the party always wanted to make inroads.
BDJS chief Thushar Vellappally contesting from Wayanad has given heft to the BJP’s scheme of things. BJP state president P S Sreedharan Pillai told Express, “We are in the process of introspecting performance of party candidates and backing they got at the grassroots. Naturally, as the leader of the NDA coalition in the state, we have discussed threadbare on the BDJS support and found it to be highly positive for us.”