The BJP polled 10.5% of the votes on its own and got 14.65% votes along with its allies in the state assembly elections held in 2016. This was the highest ever vote share for the BJP since its formation. The party has been able to erode the Congress base substantially and also managed to cut into even the left votes, though in a small way, across the state. However, the BJP could win only one assembly constituency in the last assembly elections.
The BJP could attract into National Democratic Alliance (NDA) newborn political outfit, the Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), P C Thomas’ Kerala Congress faction and the Janadhi pathya Ooru Vikasana Munnani headed by former left fire brand leader C K Janu.
However, despite such impressive voting tally , the BJP could not ensure any worthwhile presence in Kerala assembly.
In fact, Kerala is an ideal ground for BJP politics of majoritarian mobilisation as minorities constitute nearly half of the state population. The Muslims and Christian parties have a dominant presence in Kerala electoral politics providing potential for competitive mobilisation by BJP. Still, the party could not emerge as a dominant player as the congress occupies the right wing political space in the left dominated Kerala politics. With the BJP gaining ascendancy in the national politics moving from the fringes to the core of national polity , the saffron party considers the current epoch to be the right context to alter its political fortunes in Kerala. With the left in power in Kerala, the BJP and its parivar strongly feels that the Sabarimala verdict is the perfect weapon for its politico-religious and anti-left political mobilisation. With the congress taking a soft hindutva stand , the saffron narrative gains legitimacy. Thus, Sabarimala protest cannot be seen as sporadic outburst of anger over hurt religious sentiments. Hence it is a strategic political manoeuvring of the BJP in a state that remains a hard nut to crack historically since the days of its earlier incarnation, the Jan Sangh.
The RSS and the BJP have been desperately trying to capture a space for themselves in the political sphere of Kerala for the past many decades.
This is precisely the reason why the BJP which earlier welcomed the supreme court verdict has now joined the protest against it. The politico religious organisations are trying to portray the apex court verdict as a conflict between believers and non believers. Surprisingly, the congress sensing the political opportunity also joined the protest alongside BJP and sangh parivar though it earlier welcomed the supreme court judgement. Thus both BJP and the congress compete to reap political mileage from the religious sentiments of the conservative section of the society.
Deliberately ignoring the fact that it was supreme court bench that has allowed women of all ages into the temple and the state government constitutionally obliged to implement the verdict, the BJP, congress are turning the Sabarimala protest into anti left political mobilisation. The BJP is particularly keen on encashing the sentiment and the protest in the run up to 2019 parliamentary elections. It may be recalled here that the BJP government in Maharashtra implemented similar court verdict allowing women’s entry into Shani Shingnapur temple. The BJP implements court verdict allowing women entry into temple in Maharashtra, but opposes the same in Kerala. The BJP hailed the verdict initially and now joins the protest demanding that the government should not implement the verdict. Let the Modi government dare to bring an act in Parliament banning women’s entry into religious places wherever there is such a tradition and ritual.
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( Prof.K. Nageshwar is India’s noted political analyst. He is a former member of the Telangana Legislative Council and professor in the Department of Communication & Journalism, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India )