With the clock ticking down to the Lok Sabha election counting day on Tuesday, opposing fronts are perceptibly edgy and poised to continue the rancorous skirmishing that marked the campaign season in Kerala.
The United Democratic Front, led by the Congress, is seemingly basking in the “interim victory” granted by various exit polls. The UDF discerns that its poll strategy of turning the polls foremostly into a damning referendum on the Left Democratic Front government’s perceived failures rather than BJP’s “divisive politics” at the national level stood a fighting chance of paying off.
BJP’s performance
Notably, the ruling front and Opposition appear unnerved by some exit poll predictions that the BJP is poised to gain a toehold in Kerala.
The opposing alliances have reiterated in almost one voice that the results are not a foregone conclusion, as some agencies projected.
Congress leader Sashi Tharoor, UDF’s candidate in the fiercely contested Thiruvananthapuram constituency, said exit polls were no accurate measure of public opinion and were “laughable”. LDF convener E P Jayarajan echoed a similar line.
The BJP struck a different note. Buoyed by exit poll reports of a good showing, Mr. Tharoor’s BJP rival in Thiruvananthapuram, Rajeev Chandrasekhar facsimiled his party’s line that voters had shunned the LDF and UDF for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development agenda and new political realignments were on the horizon in Kerala.
An LDF insider said the ruling front might consider one seat, as predicted by some pollsters, the status quo and any additional wins a bonus, given its dismal showing in the 2019 polls.
The LDF is also preparing to analyse poll data to identify emerging trends, focussing on the local body polls in 2025 and beyond.
It had campaigned to boost its secular and minority vote share at the expense of the UDF by casting the ruling front as the sole bulwark against the ascendancy of the “Hindu-majoritarian” BJP.
The counting day eve sparring between the opposing fronts was sharply focussed on key battleground constituencies. For one, Mr. Jayarajan termed the BJP’s claim that its celebrity candidate Suresh Gopi would win Thrissur a chimaera. “Mr. Gopi would do better by returning to acting,” he said.
Candidates and political parties braved anxious hours on Monday as the countdown to the poll results announcement entered its final phase irrevocably.
Published - June 03, 2024 10:10 pm IST
