Palakkad bypoll: UDF’s massive win a message to communal campaign by CPI(M) and BJP, says Kerala Opposition Leader

Palakkad verdict serves as a message that only UDF is capable of stopping BJP, says V.D. Satheesan

Kerala’s Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan has dubbed the massive victory posted by the United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate Rahul Mamkootathil as a message conveyed by the people of Palakkad Assembly constituency to the “communally-loaded misinformation campaign” unleashed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

He was addressing a press conference at the Ernakulam District Congress Committee office in the wake of the declaration of the results in the byelection held in Palakkad and Chelakkara Assembly constituencies and Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency on Saturday (November 23, 2024).

Pointing out that Mr. Mamkootathil posted almost a five-fold increase in the majority compared to what the UDF candidate Shafi Parambil had managed in the 2021 Assembly election, Mr. Satheesan said that the verdict served as a message that only the UDF is capable of stopping the BJP.

“The CPI(M) and the BJP had jointly fought the UDF in Palakkad. In fact, CPI(M) had tried to weaken the Congress and the UDF and not the BJP,” he said.

Mr. Satheesan said Minister for Public Works P. A. Mohamed Riyas continued to maintain that the Chief Minister and the CPI(M) are “shining” and that there is no anti-incumbency. “They should continue to believe that,” said Mr. Satheesan said rather sarcastically.

He said that the verdicts of the byelections held in the last three years continue to maintain a pattern, whether it is Thrikkakara, Puthuppally or Palakkad. In all these bye-elections, the UDF candidates managed to increase the majority of the party incumbents by two, four and five folds respectively.

‘LDF lead cut in Chelakkara’

Mr. Satheesan said that the UDF had expected its candidates to win by around 3,000 votes in Chelakkara. Declining to accept the defeat there as a setback, he said that the UDF candidate managed to cut down the LDF lead in the constituency by more than 28,000 compared to the Assembly election in 2021. “Our fight there should not be taken lightly,” he said.

Mr. Satheesan accused the CPI(M) of having run “an abominable communal campaign” that will put the Sangh Parivar to shame in Palakkad constituency, while citing the two controversial election advertisement published by the party “under the supervision of” Minister for Excise M.B. Rajesh in two newspapers just ahead of the elections.

Asked whether former BJP leader Sandeep Varier crossing over to the Congress played a part in the Palakkad victory, Mr. Satheesan said that it was among the many factors. “The CPI(M) was all praise for Mr. Varier till he joined the Congress, while we had plotted the move almost a week prior to his actual joining,” he said.

Efforts were made to create the impression that there was trouble in the UDF camp (when the former Congress leader P. Sarin crossed over to the CPI(M) and was fielded as the LDF candidate). But we kept saying that it was the CPI(M) and the BJP who were in trouble. The LDF candidate ended up in woeful third place, almost repeating their awful display in 2021. The UDF managed to benefit from the drop of BJP votes in Palakkad and not the CPI(M), he added.

Published - November 23, 2024 02:08 pm IST