Gloves off in Congress-Left fight in Kerala, BJP very much in the ring

AS THE WHOLE of Kerala votes in one phase for its 20 constituencies on Friday, the fight remains between the LDF and UDF. Their leading parties, the CPI(M) and Congress, are partners in INDIA bloc, but in the state, the contest has been bare-knuckled between the two, with the BJP emerging as a strong contestant to make it a three-way fight in some seats.

In the 2019 elections, the UDF had swept the state, winning 19 of 20 seats, a result attributed to Rahul Gandhi contesting from Wayanad. With Rahul again on the ticket, the UDF will hope to better its 2019 performance.

The CPI(M), into its unprecedented second consecutive term in power, is looking to reverse its 2019 loss. Its campaign this time focused on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), calling it a “threat posed by the BJP to minorities”, and questioning the Congress’s “silence” on the issue.

As the issue heated up, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said the CAA would be repealed in the first session of Parliament if the INDIA bloc came to power.

If the CPI(M) accused the Congress of being too weak to take on the Sangh Parivar, the Congress accused the CPI(M) of “helping” the BJP to defeat the UDF. Rahul himself led the allegations of a “nexus” between the CPI(M) and the BJP, claiming that Vijayan is reluctant to speak against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and questioning why the Kerala CM had not been arrested despite facing charges when two other Opposition party leaders – Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren – were jailed. In response, Vijayan reminded Rahul that it was “his grandmother (PM Indira Gandhi) who had jailed us for one-and-a-half years” during the Emergency.

For the BJP, which has never won a Lok Sabha seat in Kerala, the contest was about improving its