The depressing and shameful performance of BJP in Puthuppally bypoll has sent shock waves to the saffron leadership in Kerala. With just 6,558 votes in its kitty in Puthuppally bypoll, the BJP leadership will find it difficult to explain the huge drain of its vote share in the constituency.

It has been reported that the BJP candidate Lijin Lal didn’t get even the votes of  party members and members of the  party affiliated organisations in the constituency. The present  bypoll was the BJP’s worst performance  in Puthuppally since 2006. In 2021, the party bagged 11,694 votes (8.87 per cent). The best performance was in 2016, when it got 15,993 votes (11.93 per cent).

It is being said that a large number of BJP workers in the constituency have voted for the Congress candidate Chandy Oommen in protest against the BJP leadership’s  attitude in  protecting Pinarayi Vijayan and his family who are facing serious allegations. It was  a warning to the leadership of the BJP that  if they do not act, feeling the pulses of the party workers and sympathisers, they will choose their own options, a BJP worker in Kozhikode said.

Resentment among BJP workers in Kerala  has been  growing over the stance taken by the Central probe  agencies  on the serious allegations  against Pinarayi Vijayan and his family. The  leadership of the BJP failed to understand the  sentiments of the party  workers and continued  the politics of ‘compromise’.

Congress leaders  made use of the anti-CPI-M sentiments of BJP workers. Congress leader VD Satheesan alleged that the Pinarayi Vijayan government, which had taken case against KPCC president K Sudhakaran in connection with a case related to the fake antique dealer Monson Mavunkal, had exempted BJP state president K Surendran, who should have been arraigned as an accused in the Kodakara money heist case.

The state police are not going ahead with the case against Surendran, who is an accused in the Manjeswaram election  bribery case. The left government is protecting Surendran in order to save Pinarayi Vijayan from Central probe agencies in various cases, including SNC Lavlin, Life Mission housing project cases, Satheesan  recently alleged.

BJP’s this kind of hobnobbing with the CPI-M has not gone well with the party cadres and sympathisers. They find it difficult to understand the reason for the adjournment  of the SNC Lavlin case, involving Pinarayi Vijayan over 30 times  in the Supreme Court.

“Pinarayi Vijayan and his family and also some CPI-M leaders are facing serious allegations of illegal activities. If the Central agencies shut their eyes  towards these allegations, naturally there would be outrage against the Central agencies and the Centre government from the BJP sympathisers and the general  public, and this will adversely affect the BJP in Kerala, which is targeting to win at least  five Lok Sabha seats from the state in the election. The warning signal has been given from Puthuppally,” a BJP worker in Kannur said.

 “BJP workers are anti-CPI-M. They cannot approve of any kind of hobnobbing with the Left party, as they have been doing politics, fighting CPI-M. If the  BJP leadership at the Centre and state continues with this policy of ‘protecting’ Pinarayi Vijayan and CPI-M, it will affect the party in Kerala,” a BJP worker in Kasargod said.

“Many of our workers and leaders were brutally killed by CPI-M men. We lost Panniyanoor Chandran, K T Jayakrishnan master , Kathiroor  Manoj and several of our workers to the CPI-M killer squads. Aren’t the BJP  Centre leadership  aware of these facts.  If they do not  know about these facts, Kerala leaders of the party  should have briefed them  about this,” a BJP worker in Thalassery said.