CPI (M) Kerala state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan said that Party state committee has analyzed that LDF has improved its position in the recent elections as compared to the previous elections.
There has been no erosion in the LDF’s mass base, which is intact, he said. The front has won 8 out of the 20 seats, and retained all the four seats that it had won in 2009. LDF has secured an additional 4,93,143 votes than the previous Lok Sabha Elections, whereas the UDF was able to gain 1,10,503 votes only. The vote share of LDF is 40.17 percent and that of UDF is 42.2 percent. This time the BJP got 10.83 percent of vote. In 2004 BJP’s vote share was 12.11 percent. He said that a concerted effort is being made to exaggerate the vote share of BJP whose votes have been purchased in every election. In this election, there was an attempt to purchase its votes for the UDF, but RSS intervened to stop this vote trade in many constituencies. However, in many constituencies BJP has sold its votes to UDF in constituencies like Alathur, Vadakara, Alappuzha, Kollam, Attingal. He said that however, the BJP’s campaign and the hype around Modi has had some impact among voters.
Independent candidates, Innocent (Chalakkudi), Joyce George (Idukki) fielded by LDF have emerged victorious and Abdurahiman (Ponnani) was able to reduce the margin of UDF candidate.
LDF had begun the campaign in a situation where UPA government was isolated from the people due to its anti people measures. But in the midst of the campaign UDF manipulated to win over the RSP to its fold. LDF constituents especially CPI (M) and CPI fought the elections with a strong unity even though RSP had left the front. Indian National League and JSS led by Gauri Amma also strongly supported the front. CMP and Forward Bloc also co operated well.
The LDF which stressed on the need for an alternative to Congress and BJP expected more seats. Though the LDF sought to expose the anti people policies of the UPA which were leading to price rise, corruption and also the threat of communalism from parties like the BJP, the media covered these issues up and tirelessly tried to help UDF and BJP. Pinarayi said that despite these efforts by the media the LDF has improved its tally from four to eight.
He said that initially people belonging to the minority communities did not take a pro-UDF stand. This made the UDF vary and it created psychosis among the minorities about Modi coming to power. This undermined the efforts made by the LDF to raise genuine issues of the people, he added.
May 24, 2014
