MALAPPURAM: UDF is pinning hopes on the possible consolidation of anti-CPM Muslim votes that are likely to be divided among Aryadan Shoukath, P V Anvar, who is fighting as independent, and SDPI candidate Sadiq Naduthodi. There is fear in the UDF camp that the votes against the ‘anti-people policies’ of the LDF government may be divided among these candidates as all of them raised similar issues against the CPM in the campaign.
Jama’at had intensified the campaign with added vigour as the stake is high for the organisation. More than anything else, the CPM raised the issue of Welfare Party’s support to the UDF as the main component of the campaign. The UDF believes that the CPM has ulterior motive of garnering the Hindu votes behind singling out the Jama’at, sidelining all other issues including the performance of the government and the development of the constituency. CPM state secretary M V Govindan’s controversial remarks on the RSS became an unexpected tool for the UDF to buttress the argument.
Welfare Party state president Razal Paleri said it is imperative to defeat the RSS-CPM coalition in Nilambur. “The stand taken by the BJP in the initial stages of the election had raised suspicions. Now it is clear as to why the party fielded a weak candidate,” he said in a press release.
In an article published in the Madhyamam daily on Wednesday, Jama’at leader O Abdurrahman said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and CPM leaders tried to add spice to the campaign by bringing his organisation into the centre of discussions. “Even before the Welfare Party declared support to the UDF, CPM state secretary M V Govindan and politburo member A Vijayaraghavan competed with each other to keep anti-Jama’at sentiments burning,” he said.
There are also efforts from the UDF to utilise the anti-CPM sentiments raging in organisations that are traditionally loyal to the CPM. Facebook posts of Muhammadali Kinalur, former leader of the Kanthapuram group’s Sunni Yuvajana Sangham, were used to put the CPM in trouble. Kinalur, however, clarified that his posts are his personal opinions and not that of any organisation.
CPM has succeeded to a great extent in diverting attention from the performance of the government from the purview of discussions during the campaign. Nilambur by-poll was necessitated after the resignation of one-time LDF fellow-traveller P V Anvar, who lashed out at Pinarayi. His main allegation was against the ‘RSS subservience’ of Kerala Police, but he could not raise it as harshly as expected because his attention was diverted to other issues related to the UDF.
Real issues such as man-animal conflict and the general backwardness of Malappuram district got submerged in the high-decibel campaign unleashed by the CPM against Jama’at. UDF leaders had tried to focus on matters like the backlog in welfare pensions and the corruption in the widening works on NH 66, but they could not sustain the tempo of such issues beyond a few days.