There could be no ifs and buts about the comprehensive drubbing that the UDF received this election, and the particularly dismal show of the Congress.
Sources say that this may well have a resonance in the Congress’s national rungs, just when the party has been hoping to claw back to some reckoning, riding on a possible win in Kerala.
The Congress won just 22 seats out of the 87 that it contested, its lowest ever tally since the bipolar coalition politics came to stay in the 1980s. The UDF that it led saw four of its ministers fall by the wayside, two belonging to the Congress.
Among the UDF constituents, the IUML just about managed to prevent a major erosion in its base, winning 18 of the 24 seats it contested — two short of its 2011 tally.
The KC(M) lost a few seats it had been winning traditionally, confining itself to a tally of six seats against the nine it had won last time. The Janata Dal (United) and the RSP drew a blank, proving once again that their umbilical cords are still tied to the LDF.
Sources point out that despite its pro-minority tilt, the Congress apparently failed to gain the confidence of the minority communities in several constituencies, particularly outside the penumbra of IUML influence. These communities would appear to have found the belligerent CPI(M) as a more credible option to take on the BJP-NDA.
At the other end of the spectrum, the attempt of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to trigger a communal polarisation has also led to the shift in minority votes to the LDF, which logged thumping victories in many constituencies. The BJP and the Bharatiya Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) together may appear to have caused a significant erosion of UDF votes.
