Reports have it that buoyed by the big surge in its vote percentage in the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP has ramped up efforts to cobble together a viable third front in the state. A few BJP leaders, it is learnt, have started exploring the possibilities of forging an understanding with the various Christian groups in the state in this regard. Leaders like Alfons Kannanthanam are said to be behind the BJP move.

The woo-Christians move has come in the wake of the success in weaning away sizable sections of the Ezhava votes, the mainstay of the CPI(M). Statistics show a big erosion in the CPI(M)’s Ezhava vote base, and the beneficiary has been the BJP.

It may be mentioned that, prior to the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had succeeded in roping in the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam to its side. SNDP general secretary Vellappalli Natesan had attended a massive rally Narendra Modi addressed in the Kerala capital in the run-up to the elections – a move that had touched off speculation of a BJP-SNDP understanding. Poll results reveal that the BJP has benefited hugely by the large-scale transfer of votes by the SNDP.

Having consolidated the Hindu vote, the BJP now seems bent on wooing the Christians, the second biggest minority in the state, which has a sizable strength in South Kerala and parts of central Kerala. On their part, a few Christian bishops seem keen on building bridges of understanding with the Modi Government at the Centre. That explains the Alfonso mission to forge an understanding with the BJP.

In a significant move that gave indications of the shape of things to come, Kerala Congress(M) chief and the state’s finance Minister K M Mani had stated before the LS elections that his party won’t shy away from having an understanding with the Modi government if the BJP wins the elections. Any party that succeeds in forming a stable government at the centre is welcome, Mani had stated then, sparking speculation of the KC(M)’s changing political stance.

Be that as it may, the BJP’s carefully-crafted game-plan could still come to grief unless the party leaders exercise restraint in their remarks and statements against Kerala. The tendency to resent the chorus of criticism voiced by leaders of various political parties in the state on the callous neglect of the state in the Railway Budget, would boomerang on the BJP.

That the Budget has given the state the cold shoulder is bad enough. What is worse is the tone and tenor of the statements of both central and Kerala BJP leaders which smack of arrogance. Instead of trying to address the genuine concerns of the state, the BJP leaders rub salt into the wounds of the state by blaming it all on the state itself.

The main ‘culprit’ in this regard is none other than the Railway Minister himself. The Minister would have us believe that Kerala cannot be allotted a new train because it does not have the tracks! Nothing is further from the truth. What the state urgently needs is the installation of an automatic signaling system which would facilitate faster movement of trains on existing tracks. The Minister has maintained a deafening silence on the subject. Even in his reply to the debate on the Railway budget, Sadananda Gowda has failed to make any amends for his insensitivity to the state’s rail travails. All that has been done is a declaration that a committee would be set up to go into the state’s rail woes. Everyone knows that setting up a committee is nothing but delaying tactics and the best way to sleep on a problem. This amounts to adding insult to injury and compounding the Modi Government’s original offence.

It is precisely such remarks dripping with arrogance and betraying its anti-Kerala bias that would cost the BJP dear. Even the floating voters who supported the BJP in the LS polls have been shocked by the display of rank arrogance by the BJP leaders. Unless the BJP leaders mend their ways, the party runs the risk of losing the substantial gains it made in the Lok Sabha polls. (IPA Service)