SNDP Yogam-sponsored political outfit BDJS, a constituent in the BJP-led NDA in Kerala, has informed the BJP leaders in Kerala that the party would not participate in the election convention of NDA candidate of NDA candidate PS Sreedharan Pillai in Chengannur.
Sources said the attempts of the BJP leaders in the state to pacify the BDJS and ensure its participation in the NDA election convention in Chengannur has received no positive response from the latter.
Sources further said the BDJS would take a decision on matters regarding cooperation with NDA after the Karnataka elections. The party has demanded posts in boards and corporations under the Central government. It hopes for a favourable decision on this before the Chengannor bypoll.
Once the central leadership takes a favourable decision on its demand the party may cooperate with the election campaign of NDA in the bypoll.
Led by Thushar Vellappally, son of SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan, BDJS has complained that BJP had not fulfilled any of the promises they had made during the time of the tie-up.
All the three fronts are keeping their fingers crossed as the Kerala Congress (M)-led by former minister K M Mani, which has significant presence in the constituency, is yet to announce its election stand. KC-M, which was a key partner in the UDF, had left the front after the 2016 Assembly polls and was keeping an equidistance from all three fronts.
Meanwhile, known for its decades-long bipolar politics, Kerala is witnessing a fierce triangular fight between the ruling LDF, Opposition UDF and BJP-led NDA in Chengannur Assembly bypoll, scheduled for 28 May.
Electioneering has hotted up in the constituency, located in Central Kerala, as the battle is a do or die for all the three fronts.
The bypoll was necessitated following the death of sitting MLA K K Ramachandran Nair (CPI-M) in January this year due to illness.
Winning the seat is a matter of prestige for the CPI(M)-led LDF as the poll result would be evaluated as the performance of the two-year-old government led by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The focus of LDF’s election campaign is on the achievements of the Vijayan government and the “negative fall out” of the demonetisation and “flaws” in implementing
GST and the alleged communal agenda of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre.
The by-election is a golden opportunity for the Congress-led UDF to wrest its traditional seat from LDF, which had won Chengannur the 2016 Assembly polls ending the years-long supremacy of the rival front.
Besides raking up the “anti-people” policies of both the Centre and the state governments, the Congress is also campaigning against the political violence allegedly unleashed by the ruling CPI(M) in the state.