Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that people of the State have rejected the Congress and BJP’s defamatory campaign against the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government.
They had returned the LDF to power with a bigger majority and for a better future, he told mediapersons on Sunday.
Mr. Vijayan said he would tender his resignation to Governor Arif Muhammad Khan soon. The LDF would meet and stake claim to form a new government soon.
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When pressed, Mr. Vijayan said the Cabinet would have new faces. The new LDF government would focus on retarding the pandemic and reviving the economy. Welfarism was on the top of the LDF's agenda.
In an oblique reference to Nair Service Society (NSS) general secretary G. Sukumaran Nair, Mr. Vijayan said a ‘particular person’ had early on the voting day called for a regime change. However, the last-minute effort to influence voters’ choice had failed. People voted based on their experience of life with the LDF government.
Jose. K. Mani of the Kerala Congress (M) had lost in Pala because the BJP had cross voted to help the UDF candidate. The LDF would analyse the reasons for Fisheries Minister J. Mercykutty Amma's "one-off" defeat.
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The LDF had "closed the BJP's account" in Kerala. The BJP had won in Nemom in the 2016 Assembly elections because the Congress had posed no real challenge. Moreover, the UDF had cross-voted to help the BJP candidate. The BJP's victory was an aberration.
The BJP brand of Hindu majoritarian politics would not gain traction in Kerala. The State had a secular mind. Moreover, its people trusted the LDF to keep communal forces at bay.
The BJP had unleashed a recriminatory campaign against the LDF. It had roped in the Central law enforcement to target the State government. The right-wing media helped the BJP, and also the Congress, help spread lies about the government. It aired libellous allegations against LDF leaders. However, the Opposition parties could not reap the political dividend they had anticipated. The media realised that they were not kingmakers.
Indirectly referring to V.T. Balaram's defeat in Thrithala, Mr. Vijayan said voters had punished the candidate for denigrating the memory of communist leader A.K. Gopalan.