THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The ‘red tsunami’ that lashed Kerala on Sunday caused a total washout of the BJP-led NDA and also posed serious questions on the saffrom combine’s claim as a credible alternative to the state’s bipolar politics. In addition to losing its lone sitting seat of Nemom, which the party proudly calls its ‘Gujarat’ in Kerala, the BJP also failed to translate into seats the surge of votes in favour of some of its celebrity candidates such as Metroman E Sreedharan.
BJP state president K Surendran, who contested from Manjeshwar and Konni and shuttled between the two constituencies on a chopper for campaigning, ended up losing both the seats. Though he gave a tough fight in Manjeshwar and lost the seat by a narrow margin, he was pushed to the third spot in Konni — the epicentre of the Sabarimala agitation.
Among the party’s star candidates, only Sreedharan, Kummanam Rajasekharan and Suresh Gopi managed to maintain a lead as the counting progressed. Sreedharan was leading by as many as 8,000 votes at one point, before being drubbed in the last lap by Palakkad’s sitting MLA Shafi Parambil. Suresh Gopi, who surprised many by emerging on top during the initial rounds of counting, ended up in the third spot in Thrissur. Kummanam too saw his electoral fortunes in Nemom being reversed at the fag end of the counting process.
Other star candidates of the party — Sobha Surendran, M T Ramesh, A N Radhakrishnan, Alphons Kannanthanam and Jacob Thomas — failed to generate the desired impact.Sobha emerged second in Kazhakoottam in a keenly-watched contest. Kadakampally’s huge lead in the constituency hinted at the possibility of a minority consolidation in his favour, especially considering the saffron party’s aggressive Hindutva plank and excessive focus on the Sabarimala issue.
The chances of Sobha’s rival faction in the party pulling the rug off from under her feet also cannot be ruled out. “We will examine the NDA’s performance in detail, discuss it both within the BJP and the coalition, and move forward accordingly,” said Surendran, after the results were announced. Even though the party has hinted at a large-scale minority consolidation in constituencies where it had high probability of winning, this sole argument may not find favour with the central leadership.