Kerala elections 2021: Revelations about 'tacit vote share deals' leave BJP red-faced

The allegations that the CPM had been raising since the 1991 Assembly elections has got a confirmation from BJP senior leader and legislator O Rajagopal. Rajagopal had also stated that the reason behind the rise in votes for BJP in Manjeshwaram and Ottapalam is also the Congress- League- BJP pact. With this, the allegations on discreet vote sharing deals which have been brought up for years together gets a public confirmation.

Thiruvananthapuram:O Rajagopal is everything for the BJP in Kerala. After many years of continuous efforts, it was through Rajagopal that the party could open an account in Kerala Assembly.

The BJP gained huge political mileage when O Rajagopal was elected as the first BJP legislator from Kerala from the Nemom constituency in Thiruvananthapuram, in the 2016 Assembly elections.

After five years now, when the stage is getting set for the next Assembly elections in the State, O Rajagopal is not a candidate. Former Mizoram governor and BJP former state president Kummanam Rajashekharan is to contest on Lotus symbol at the sitting BJP constituency.

Though Rajashekaran is not active in election works, he has been openly expressing his opinions and being active in the political and public sphere in Kerala. Any elections in Kerala have witnessed allegations and counter-allegations on vote sharing and tacit understandings between political parties. Usually, such allegations are raised by the BJP, the CPM and Congress against each other. This time, there has been a slight difference.

Senior leaders of the BJP, including O Rajagopal, themselves revealed that the ‘tacit deals on vote sharing’ have happened earlier and it still does. The allegations and counter-allegations on ‘understandings’ between parties on vote sharing earlier, has now become open acceptance by senior leaders of the BJP.

A tacit Congress - League - BJP alliance had existed in the Malabar region and that was strong and beneficial to the BJP, Rajagopal said. Such ‘arrangements’ were with the permission of the leadership at a regional level, Rajagopal revealed.

Adjustments might be needed in practical politics, but only need to be known to the leadership, not to the people, he added.

Rajagopal denounced the statement made by Balashankar, RSS ideologue and former editor of Organiser- RSS newspaper, and said Balashankar is repeating something he heard from someone.

Balashankar had earlier stated that the BJP state leadership has made a secret pact with the CPM on vote sharing. All these statements by its senior leaders in the public have put the BJP on the defensive in Kerala.

The allegations that the CPM had been raising since the 1991 Assembly elections has got a confirmation from BJP senior leader and legislator O Rajagopal. Rajagopal had also stated that the reason behind the rise in votes for BJP in Manjeshwaram and Ottapalam is also the Congress- League- BJP pact.

With this, the allegations on discreet vote sharing deals which have been brought up for years together gets a public confirmation.

Many leaders including K Raman Pilla, P P Mukundan who are Rajagopal’s contemporaries are not active in the party anymore. Both Raman Pilla and P P Mukundan had publicly declared years ago that there had been a vote sharing arrangement. However, none of those comes to the effect of what Rajagopal said.

Finally, Kozhikode North BJP candidate and BJP state general secretary M T Ramesh also agreed that there has been such a tacit arrangement.

Speaking at Kozhikode, Ramesh said, the pact between Congress, League and BJP which Rajagopal had referred to had existed, and it is not a secret. Ramesh’s stand is that it was a failed alliance. Ramesh also said that Janasangham, the earlier form of BJP, also had ties with the CPM.

M T Ramesh went a step ahead and alleged that Pinarayi Vijayan was the election agent for the BJP leader K.G. Marar.