Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday said the bypoll results indicated that voters had resoundingly rejected the satraps of caste and religious organisations who daydreamed that they could arbitrate the outcome of elections from their privileged seclusion.
Buoyed by the relatively good showing of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) at the hustings, Mr. Vijayan obliquely criticised the leadership of the Nair Service Society (NSS) for "imagining" that they had the "electorate tied to the end of their dhotis."
Without naming any organisation, Mr. Vijayan said he did not deny the role of caste and religious outfits in society. It was usual for politicians of all hues to seek their support during elections. However, some religious leaders misconstrued such niceties as evidence of their power and inevitability in politics. Hopefully, the bypoll results had corrected their false notions of grandeur.
Mr. Vijayan said the media had grossly exaggerated the political importance of caste organisations. Journalists had overstated their ability to sway voters.
Conservative organisations had campaigned hard against the LDF. They had harped on the importance of showing caste allegiance at the hustings than voting on issues relating to livelihood and development.
The LDF instead unleashed the power of youth-driven secular politics to battle the narrow casteist and sectarian agenda pushed by conservative forces that often behaved as proxies of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
At a stroke, voters had rejected their divisive agenda. “Thousands of new persons have cast their votes for the LDF. It explains our emphatic victories in Vattiyurkavu and Konni,” Mr. Vijayan said.
The LDF has increased its number of seats in the Assembly from 91 in 2016 to 93 in 2019.
