With less than a fortnight to go for the poll, the BJP-led NDA coalition is desperately trying to execute the BJP Central leadership’s strategy to effect a hung Assembly in Kerala, however tough that may appear.
Sources say the RSS, which is guiding the electioneering of the BJP, has activated all its 5,500-odd shakhas in the State hoping to ensure a triangular fight in at least 70 Assembly constituencies. At a recent meeting held in Kochi, the organisation had also decided to engage a senior pracharak to oversee the campaigning, while the BJP has also engaged another 200 full-timers in specified Assembly segments.
Party vote share
By and large, the Central leadership wants to increase the party’s vote-share to 20 per cent this time.
Party sources said that the coalition had decided to go full-throttle in 18 plus Assembly constituencies where it has possible wins across the State. Some of these are Manjeswaram, Kasaragod, Kozhikode North, Palakkad, Tripunithura, Muvattupuzha, Chengannur, Mavelikara, Aranmula, Kazhakuttam, Vattiyurkavu, Thiruvananthapuram Central, Nemon, Neyyattinkara, and Parasala. Besides, the seats contested by BDJS such as Kovalam, Udumbanchola. Kuttanad, Vaikom and Kodungalloor.
Sources say the party leadership, keeping in view the vote statistics of the last Assembly poll, is of the view that both the Congress-led UDF and the CPI (M)-led LDF have won from nearly 25 constituencies on margins of less than 5,000 votes.
The UDF had won 13 such seats and the LDF, the remaining 12. However, these figures had changed in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, benefitting the UDF. And now it appears to be a neck-and-neck race in the State, sources said.
Vote transfer
The RSS leadership believes that neither the UDF nor the LDF would attempt to transfer votes to keep the BJP out of the Assembly. “Previously the BJP might have had a chance to win a seat or two. Then it was easy for the Left parties or the Congress-IUML combine to cross vote. Now the situation is different with the BJP posing a challenge in several constituencies,” RSS Prantha Karyavahak P. Gopalankutty said.
Mr. Gopalankutty said that both the coalitions are desperate now. “The LDF wants to capture power while the UDF wants to retain power. They will not indulge in any misadventure to lose even a single seat,” he added.
RSS believes that neither the UDF nor the LDF will attempt to transfer votes to keep the BJP out.
