KOCHI: PFI’s ban will have a political impact in Kerala as its political wing SDPI has a vote base in the state and been swaying votes in favour of both UDF and LDF in general elections over the years. In 2021 assembly polls, SDPI contested in 40 seats securing 75,566 votes while in 2016, they contested in 88 seats garnering 1,23,243 votes.
Though their vote percentage has dipped from 0.9 per cent in 2011 (when they contested in 80 seats) to 0.6% in 2016 and 0.4 % in 2021, SDPI leaders had claimed that they decided to contest the polls for name sake as its main decision was to support the front with which they had made an understanding in the respective elections.
In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, SDPI made an open claim that they had supported Congress-led UDF and an analysis of the result in constituencies where the SDPI decided not to field their candidates validate its claim.
The SDPI votes plummeted to just 80,000 then from 2.73 lakh in 2014 indicating that the party transferred all votes in favour of the UDF candidates in Kasaragod, Pathanamthitta, Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Idukki, Kottayam and Thrissur. The SDPI, which contested only 10 seats in 2019 elections, came fourth in five constituencies.
In Malappuram, they secured 19,106 votes followed by 18,124 in Ponnani, 8,142 in Kannur, 5,544 in Vadakara and 5,426 in Wayanad. An analysis of the 2014 election results shows that the SDPI had secured 2.73 lakh votes with maximum votes polled in Kasaragod (9,713), Pathanamthitta (11,353), Kollam (12,812), Idukki (10,401) and Thrissur (6,894).
In 2019 polls, the SDPI leadership chose not to field candidates in these constituencies and the UDF managed to come out with a thumping victory in Kasaragod, Idukki and Thrissur which were sitting seats of the CPM, most importantly Kasaragod constituency which was held by LDF for the past 30 years.
In fact, the relation between SDPI and the CPM worsened in 2018 when Students Federation of India (SFI) leader Abhimanyu of Maharaja’s College was allegedly murdered by SDPI workers on the college campus on July 1.
8 BOOKED FOR RAISING PRO-PFI SLOGANS
T’Puram: The Kallambalam police on Thursday registered cases under UAPA against eight PFI members after they allegedly raised slogans in the outfit’s support. The police said the members raised the slogans while removing the party flag on Wednesday after the Centre banned the organisation. Two of them were arrested, said the police.