Kerala is yet to sight Rahul Gandhi on its political horizon.
New Delhi: Who is stopping Congress president Rahul Gandhi contesting from Kerala or rather who is afraid of Rahul Gandhi contesting from Wayanad in Kerala? Electioneering in the southern state currently seems to revolve around the answers to these questions. Also it looks like fortunes of all the three main players—CPM, Congress and the BJP—in Kerala hinges on the question whether the Congress president will contest from the state or not. It is almost a week since senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy supposedly dropped a “bombshell” by announcing to waiting newspersons that Rahul Gandhi would be contesting from Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in north Kerala. All these six days had seen many political statements from all the three major players in favour or against Gandhi’s “imminent arrival”. Though the announcement came as a total surprise to ordinary Congress workers in general, but they saw it as an opportunity for the party to “sweep” the elections. While the CPM went into a panic mood, the BJP, though confused at the beginning, announced that it would take back the seat from ally BDJS and started looking for an eligible candidate to put up against Gandhi. But for good or bad, Kerala is yet to sight Gandhi on its political horizon. Oommen Chandy now says that he had never ever said that Gandhi would contest from Kerala, but merely urged him to do so. “Our request to the AICC leadership was that Mr Gandhi should contest from Wayanad. Along with the two other South Indian states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, Kerala too had demanded that he should be contesting from Wayanad,” Chandy said, trying to wriggle out of a complicated situation. However, the PCC president, Mullappally Ramachandran had a different take on it when he said “some vested interests in Delhi” were trying to stop Gandhi contesting from Kerala. Curiously enough, he has promised to “reveal more” in a day or two. “I will disclose the details after a final decision is taken,” he said.
What is surprising is that more than the BJP it was the CPM, which had raised objections to Gandhi contesting from Kerala. The Kerala unit of the CPM had always objected and even blocked any effort by its central leadership to have a tie-up with Congress in besieged Bengal, simply because it considered Congress as its bitterest rival in Kerala. It would be difficult for the party to convince its cadre in Kerala if CPM forged an alliance with Congress in Bengal, maintained the state leadership. So when Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said Rahul Gandhi contesting from Wayanad would send out the message that Congress was fighting against CPM, and not BJP, many in the Left were taken aback. As party spokespersons tried in vain to justify Pinarayi on TV debates, it was clear that CPM saw the arrival of Rahul Gandhi as indeed a threat to CPM’s chances in Kerala, the only state where the party hopes to win more than a couple of seats. While senior CPM leaders went hammer and tongs against the Congress elsewhere in the state, alleging even a tacit understanding with the BJP in key constituencies, behind the scene there were frantic efforts to stop Rahul Gandhi contesting from Wayanad. Senior CPM leaders wanted to know how Congress proposed to carry out its fight against Narendra Modi if it was engaged in a straight contest with the CPM in Kerala. State Congress countered by saying if CPM was serious about its anti-fascist credentials, then it should withdraw its candidate from Wayanad in favour of Rahul Gandhi. Along with that came the news that CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury would not campaign in Wayanad.
The state Congress leadership’s flip-flop on Rahul Gandhi has done enough damage to the party’s prospects in the state. Many pollsters had predicted a swing in the party’s favour even before elections were declared. They had claimed that more than the BJP it would be the Congress that would benefit from the fallout of Sabarimala agitation. Now with the high command undecided over two key constituencies, Wayanad and Vadakara, the cadre remains in the dark as what to do, though in Vadakara, party nominee, K. Muraleedharan’s campaign is on in full swing. The Congress now is trying to put the blame on CPM for the Rahul Gandhi impasse. The state party claims that allies DMK’s M.K. Stalin and NCP’s Sharad Pawar are the ones who are putting pressure on Rahul Gandhi not to go to Kerala as it would “hurt the Left”. “Leave the Left alone and concentrate more on the saffron party,” they had apparently told the Congress president. Whatever may be the outcome it is too farfetched to believe that Rahul Gandhi contesting somewhere from the South would dramatically influence the fortunes of the Congress party, which in normal ways have a good chance in bettering its position in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
The Congress is hoping to win all the 16 seats out of 20 it is contesting in Kerala. Two weeks ago, anyone would have given the party a minimum of 14 seats, but not anymore, with all this drama going on it is to be seen how the party takes it forward in the remaining three weeks of campaign before it goes to polls on 23 April. Frustration is running high among Congress workers in the Malabar area. As the confusion continues, the BJP has stepped up its campaign in “exposing the tacit understanding between the CPM and Congress in the state” to spoil its chances. Not in Vadakara or Wayanad, but perhaps elsewhere in the state.