2016 Kerala poll result will change political equations in state: Kummanam Rajasekharan, CPM, corruption, Congress, BJP, Kerala BJP chief Kummanam Rajasekharan, Kerala assembly election 2016, Kerala polls

2016 Kerala poll result will change political equations in state: Kummanam Rajasekharan, CPM, corruption, Congress, BJP, Kerala BJP chief Kummanam Rajasekharan, Kerala assembly election 2016, Kerala polls

The BJP has put high stakes on the upcoming elections in Kerala, where it has never won an assembly seat. BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan discusses his hopes and strategies in this election.

How does the BJP plan to take on the Congress and the CPM in this election?

The BJP will expose the violent politics of the CPM and the corrupt governance of the Congress. People are looking for good riddance from CPM violence and Congress corruption. The BJP and the RSS have lost 85 men to political violence in Kannur in four decades. The RSS national leadership had invited the CPM to a discussion to end political violence in Kannur but the CPM has been reluctant because the communists want the bloodbath to continue in Kerala politics.

But your party has been on one side of the political violence.

That is true. But is there any party who had not been subjected to CPM violence? Three weeks ago, CPM cadres hacked a Congress worker to death in front of his parents and wife.

The Congress and the CPM say you were made BJP state president to foment communal trouble.

These two parties are spreading canards. When I became the state president, they alleged I had asked to flush non-Hindu traders out of temple premises. They spread this lie to create panic among minorities The Congress will lose its influence in Kerala the day the state has perfect communal harmony. The Congress wants to see one community pitted against the other. It keeps Muslims in its fold saying the BJP would attack them. One should remember the BJP was not a party to any of the recent communal flare-ups in Kerala.

How do you assess the BJP’s prospects?

Definitely, the BJP will open its account this election. There will be political undercurrents turning the situation in favour of the BJP. Our confidence has increased manifold. I cannot say how many seats we will win as we are contesting all sdseats with the aim to win. The result will be a turning point in Kerala politics. It will bring changes to political equations in Kerala. More parties and communities will lean towards the BJP.

You have emerged as a Hindu leader by leading agitations against Christians.

I have developed good relations with bishops of various churches after I became BJP state president. They don’t have a anti-BJP approach. The alliance with Ezhava party Bharatiya Dharma Jana Sena has not alienated minority communities from the BJP.

Is it now or never for the BJP?

Whatever the result, the party will go ahead. A drubbing in one election is not the end of the road.

Will the Dalit and beef controversies affect the BJP’s prospects?

There are attempts to exploit these issues for electoral gains. But such attempts will not work. We have already made clear that status quo should be maintained regarding food habits in Kerala. In atrocities on Dalits, Kerala is not far behind northern states. The difference is that such issues do not become national topics as the Dadri and Rohith Vemula incidents did. Why is the Congress or the CPM not discussing the brutal serial rape of a Dalit minor two weeks back in Attingal?

The CPM alleges that BJP has a secret understanding with the Congress.

Both raise this allegation against the BJP only to cover up for the embarrassment that they face in West Bengal, where Rahul Gandhi is campaigning for Left Front candidates. There in an “adjustment politics between the Congress and the CPM, which the BJP will defeat this time. The Congress and the CPM are worried about the inroads to be made by the BJP.

src:indianexpress

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