Guruvayur: The BJP got a shock in Guruvayur even before it started its campaign for the assembly election. The returning officer rejected the nomination papers of party candidate Nivedita Subramanian because they did not carry the signature of the party state president as required.
The goof-up is guaranteed to sting the party leaders because the temple town is personally known to national leaders including prime minister Narendra Modi, who is a frequent visitor to the famed Guruvayurappan Temple.
The incumbent Left Democratic Front had its surprises too. Though the Thrissur district committee of the CPM threw its weight behind state secretariat member Baby John as a candidate, the state committee chose area secretary N K Akbar as a successor to K V Abdul Khader, who had represented the constituency in the assembly for the party for 15 years.
Even more surprising was the Muslim League plan. The Congress ally has picked an appropriate candidate for the temple town. K N A Khader is known for his speeches peppered with Hindu philosophy and myths. He was one of the UDF leaders who actively campaigned against the LDF government’s decision to implement a Supreme Court order to let women of all ages inside the Sabarimala temple.
Khader is equally appealing in both Hindu and Muslim communities. The party’s district committee itself asked for Khader as a candidate, in a sign that the party had put behind its damaging past of factional feuds.
Khader’s candidature has energised the Congress too. The absence of a BJP candidate is also expected to help him. The conservative votes that the BJP could have tapped into now belong to Khader. The BJP leadership, however, has offered to support Dilip Nair, a candidate of the Democratic Socialist Justice Party which was tipped to join the National Democratic Alliance.
The Muslim League represented Guruvayur from 1977 to 1996, when the LDF managed to wrest the seat piggybacking on the popularity of an independent candidate. In 2006, the CPM consolidated its position when Abdul Khader was elected under the party’s symbol.
The LDF votes dipped 3.77 percent in 2016, while the BJP recorded almost threefold increase in its votes.
