Communist party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State unit secretary Pinarayi Vijayan has said that one section of the minorities have helped the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the Lok Sabha elections, while another section has “distracted into favouring” the United Democratic Front (UDF).
Speaking to the media after the party State committee had evaluated the elections results here on Saturday, Mr. Vijayan said the LDF victories in the Idukki and Chalakudy seats showed that the Christian minorities had aligned behind the LDF.
He said there was no animosity towards the LDF from any minority community this time, but one section [the Muslims] tended to lean more towards the Congress-led UDF because of the “erroneous” impression that the Congress was the best bet to stop the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from coming to power at the Centre.
He alleged that the BJP’s local leadership, which had become “used to selling party votes for gain,” was on the job this time too.
In five seats — Vadakara, Alathur, Alappuzha, Kollam and Attingal — the BJP votes had gone down this time compared to the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. He said the impression created by the media that the BJP had made some gains in these elections was wrong. From 12.11 per cent in 2004, the BJP’s vote share came down to 10.83 per cent this time, he said.
He said the LDF’s performance was “very good” winning more votes and seats than in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, but the results were not up to the expectations of everyone at the start of the campaign.
“The results in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha, Kozhikode and Vadakara will be particularly subjected to study [due to the party’s assessment that there had been erosion in the LDF votes]… Senior leaders of the party have been assigned the responsibility of doing it,” he said.
