Comments
A day after the State polled the highest number of votes in three decades, political parties in Kerala went into a huddle and made claims of having made inroads into each other’s vote banks.
The polling at 77.68 per cent in the State was not too far short of the the highest ever of 79.3 per cent in 1989 and 79.2 per cent in 1977 even as it bettered the 77.13 per cent in 1984.
On all three occasions, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) made most gains. But in the last Assembly elections in 2016 that polled 77.35 per cent overall, it was the turn of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) to spring a surprise.
The LDF secured 91 seats in the 140-member State Assembly in that election, pushing the UDF to the status of an also-ran, though conceding one seat for the first time to the BJP.
A dark horse?
Political observers are now wondering if the BJP would have run up enough steam to turn the tables on the LDF and the UDF and open its account in the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP is cock-a-hoop over the fact that voting crossed the 80 per cent mark in eight of the 20 Lok Sabha constituencies and 75 per cent in five more.
It was for the first time that all 20 constituencies returned a polling of above 70 per cent.
Sabarimala campaign
The party believes that its agenda of swearing allegiance to traditions, faith and rituals as a sequel to the Sabarimala campaign had brought out voters, especially women, in large numbers this time, despite the unforgiving weather.
This, it says, was evident in the Pathanamthitta constituency, home to the Sabarimala hill shrine, where polling jumped by more than 8 per cent to 74.19 per cent, which should favour its fiery candidate K Surendran.
However, the UDF has a different take on the high polling, attributing it to a wave of anti-incumbency against the Modi government at the Centre and the Pinarayi Vijayan government in the State.
The party believes that a ‘Rahul Gandhi wave’ was also evident, occasioned by the Congress President’s candidature from Wayanad, where 80.31 per cent of the electorate exercised their franchise as against 73.28 per cent in 2014.
LDF hopes
The LDF’s version is that it is the ‘silent majority’ of secular votes which found expression in the record polling in the State.
All three main fronts, however, unanimously agree that people voted with their feet this time for a cause close to their heart.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.