BJP unlikely to make great strides in Vattiyoorkavu: O Rajagopal

Thiruvananthapuram: Bharatiya Janata Party doesn't fancy its chances in Kerala as results of the five assembly elections in the state will be declared on Thursday. A day before the results, senior BJP leader O Rajagopal admitted his party was unlikely to make any major gains in the Vattiyoorkavu constituency which too had witnessed a bypoll on Monday. The senior leader’s public comments point to the fissures in the Kerala unit of the party.

Pointing out that the current bypoll is valid for only 18 months, Rajagopal said that the BJP did not consider it to be a life-or-death matter.

Interestingly, Rajagopal had backed former Kerala BJP chief Kummanam Rajasekharan to contest from Vattiyoorkavu.

Rajagopal also made veiled attacks on the NDA candidate S Suresh at Vattiyoorkavu. "The image that the candidate has before the public is important. I thought that an experienced leader like Kummanam would contest the polls. Then the decision was taken to field a young face. But as a responsible party worker, there are some limitations in speaking out openly," he said.

When asked about reports that the RSS stayed away from campaigning, Rajagopal said that the RSS did not have to be in the forefront of campaigning.

"However, when the outfit functions as a single unit, then its presence is evident. It is only natural for the outfit to have affection towards a senior leader like Kummanam. Even though Suresh is an activist, he has not worked for long," Rajagopal said.

Suresh however said that the BJP-led alliance had worked as a single unit in the bypoll. However, he said that the criticisms raised by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and United Democratic Front (UDF) had marred the confidence of the BJP workers at grass-roots level.

He further alleged that the UDF had cross-voted at several areas. "There have been instances when the CPM cross-voted for K Muraleedharan of the Congress to defeat Kummanam. And the Congress cross-voting for the CPM to beat O Rajagopal,” he claimed.

However, he refuted charges that the BJP had cross-voted for the LDF.

Rajagopal also alleged that the rivals Congress had backed the LDF in the Vattiyoorkavu bypoll.

"LDF candidate V K Prashanth faced the bypoll even when he was the mayor of Thiruvananthapuram corporation. The Congress, which backs the LDF to keep the Left’s hold on the administration of the corporation, has helped Prashanth in this bypoll too," Rajagopal said.

The 75-year-old BJP leader also made it clear that he would not contest polls again.

‘BJP not wary of exit polls’

BJP state president P S Sreedharan Pillai said that his party was not wary of the exit polls, which predicted that the UDF would win in three constituencies while the LDF in the remaining two.

"It is not possible to say how many seats would the BJP win. I am not concerned over the low voter turnout. All the BJP votes have been polled. We are extremely positive of the results," he added.

He, however, said that the approach taken by religious outfits could backfire against the BJP.

"It is not possible to predict now as to how the stance taken by the outfits that back the Left and the UDF would impact the polls. Only certain Christian organisations openly backed the BJP. That's only a very narrow margin of support,” he said.

"The NSS and the SNDP cannot be blamed. Nor can we blame the BDJS over its stance in Konni and Adoor," he added.