Righting What's Left

Having ousted the CPI(M) from Tripura, the BJP now shifts its focus to Kerala and West Bengal

- Cithara Paul & Rabi Banerjee

The television screen showed a group of men, with the help of a bulldozer, pulling down a huge statue of Vladimir Lenin in Tripura, on March 6. What was till a few days ago a red bastion was now covered in saffron flags and shouts of “Bharat Mata ki jai”. The faces glued to the screen, at the BJP’s Kerala headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, were beaming with pride. “Now we know why our party president [Amit Shah] told us he would visit Kerala only after the Tripura elections,” said a state office bearer. Apparently, the state leadership had been requesting Shah to visit Kerala to boost the party’s sagging morale, but he had repeatedly declined.

Shortly after the Tripura victory, Shah said his party would also win the state elections in Odisha (2019), West Bengal and Kerala (2021); the third being the CPI(M)’s last seat of power. “The Congress is no threat to the BJP. But, we must be wary of the communists. They have a cadre system and a deep-rooted ideology. It is a deadly combination,” Shah had warned the state BJP leaders during his last visit.

But, after the Tripura elections, the state BJP has gained a lot of confidence. “If the BJP can win in the northeast, which has 80 per cent minority population, capturing Kerala would be an easier task,” said BJP leader K. Surendran.

Sreedharan Pillai, who is the probable BJP candidate in the upcoming assembly by election in Chengannur, said: “The Tripura election has reduced the CPI(M) to Kerala, and it is likely to be reduced to a Kannur party very soon. If we manage to get the Christian votes, then it will be a walkover for the BJP. And, post-Tripura, we are quite optimistic of bagging them.”

The state BJP is also planning to replicate the Tripura model, of coopting a large chunk of the Congress state unit, and Congress leaders in Kerala are reportedly being sounded out.