The alleged intervention of Left parties and other allies of the Congress at the national level against Rahul Gandhi’s entry into the electoral fray from Wayanad is likely to blunt the strong anti-Marxist plank of the Congress party’s State leadership.
With no word on the Congress president’s foray into Wayanad on the second day of filing nomination papers, senior leaders are working out an alternative electioneering action plan to reduce the negative impact if Mr. Gandhi were to wilt under pressure of other prospective partners and drop his plans.
News channels, however, quoted liberally from an interview that Mr. Gandhi purportedly gave to a Hindi daily justifying the proposal for contesting from a constituency in South India and that he had not taken a decision on this.
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Bipolar coalition
Down the decades, Kerala has witnessed a bipolar coalition system, with the political fight between the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front and the Congress-led United Democratic Front. The entire rank and file of the Congress party draw their sustenance from the party’s strident anti-CPI(M) stance.
Congress leaders have not minced words while attacking the LDF, singling out Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who has emerged the strongman in the CPI(M).
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There has been virtually no change in the script, though BJP’s emergence as the ruling party at the national level gave the electoral contests in Kerala a triangular shape. The results have always been a bitter pill for the BJP to swallow.
Arch enemy
Congress leaders in Kerala have always been at odds with the Central leaders for whom the BJP is the main enemy.
The pulls of national politics and the imperatives of State politics are likely to complicate matters for the Congress.
It was Nationalist Congress Party State president Thomas Chandy who was the first to openly give the indication of the Left and allied parties’ intervention. Mr. Chandy told mediapersons that NCP leader Sharad Pawar had urged Mr. Gandhi not to contest from Wayanad keeping in mind the objective of defeating Mr. Modi and the BJP.
The NCP has been part of the United Progressive Alliance and is an important ally of the Congress in Maharashtra. It is possible that Mr. Pawar could wield some kind of influence on Mr. Gandhi.
Still hopeful
Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala and KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran said they were hopeful of a positive decision, but it was for the Congress president to take the final call. Mr. Ramachandran criticised certain Left leaders in Delhi who, he said, were staging a drama to prevent Mr. Gandhi from contesting from Kerala. “The CPI(M) is losing sleep because of Mr. Gandhi’s contest,” He told The Hindu over telephone from Vadakara.