“Why did you (Congress) conceal the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) flag,” CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat thundered at Tuesday’s LDF rally in the Wayanad constituency.
Flanked by the LDF’s candidate, Annie Raja, Ms. Karat attempted to score a political point over the Congress by spotlighting the glaring absence of IUML colours at Rahul Gandhi’s rallies and roadshows in the constituency.
She tapped into the arguably impairing political optics of the absence of IUML colours at UDF’s rallies in Wayanad to put Mr Gandhi’s party on the defence.
Ms. Karat also created political theatre by raising the INL’s almost identical green and crescent standards. She juxtaposed the INL’s green pennant with the iconic red flags of the CPI(M) and CPI.
“We have the red flag of the communist parties next to INL banners. INL is a respected LDF ally”, she said.
Ms. Karat appeared to cast the UDF’s avoidance of IUML colours as cowardly political puppetry to avoid falling into the BJP’s stratagem of falsely portraying the Congress’s ally’s standards as the national colours of Pakistan.
The LDF also aimed to deprive Wayanad’s IUML voters of their sense of belonging in the Congress fold. The LDF seemed not to have lost sight of the fact that Muslims voters formed a crucial part in Mr Gandhi’s constituency and a sizeable number of them hewed to the IUML’s politics.
On Wednesday, in Alappuzha, CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan sought to capitalise on the Congress’s “dilemma” in Wayanad.
“The Congress covets IUML votes but is embarrassed to be seen alongside its closest ally’s banners,” he said.
Mr. Govindan said the Congress kept away its tricolour pennants from Mr. Gandhi’s rallies as a grudging trade-off for the IUML keeping its standards out of sight.
“The Congress is petrified of the BJP. Its national leadership had refused to take on the BJP in its Hindi heartland and has chosen to fight the LDF in Kerala where the Sangh Parivar has no traction,” he said.
He said the Congress’s secular guard rails were increasingly shaky. The scions of two dominant Congress families in Kerala had defected to the BJP, and the Congress towed a soft Hindutva line.
The CPI(M) said the Congress’s almost needle-threading effort to obfuscate its historical alliance with the IUML appeared painfully calibrated to avoid the ire of Hindu right-wing voters in Kerala and beyond.
The IUML and the Congress have hit back by accusing the CPI(M) of aiding the BJP’s agenda by harping on the absence of flags. KPCC acting president M.M. Hassan said that the CPI(M) need not sit in judgment of UDF’s campaign tactics.
It remains to be seen how UDF’s broader strategy of dodging the Sangh Parivar’s effort to inflame culture wars around IUML’s party symbol would play out in Wayanad.
