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BJP struggles for allies in Kerala

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

Few in Kerala are willing to contest the coming elections as independents supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

As the party had failed to find strong allies in the state, its leadership had decided to field eminent personalities in its bid to woo the electorate in the Communist-ruled state.

Sources said most of the eminent persons the party had approached had expressed their reluctance to accept the BJP's support.

Topping the list of probable candidates was President K R Narayanan's younger brother K R Bhaskaran, who had been taking interest in the activities of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh. He had praised the Sangh Parivar outfit for its patriotism, discipline and dedication.

Sources close to Bhaskaran said that he was not inclined to accept the offer, as he was not comfortable with the BJP ideology. The attacks on minorities during the BJP rule have considerably shaken his trust in the party.

The BJP was thinking of fielding him as an independent in Ottapalam, where his elder brother had won two elections before becoming the vice-president.

The idea was to send a strong signal to the dalits, who still view the BJP with suspicion.

Former Left Democratic Front minister K Chandrashekharan (Kasargod) and former chief secretary R Ramachandran Nair (Thiruvananthapuram) also figured in the list. The BJP stood third in these Lok Sabha constituencies in the last elections.

Chandrashekharan, who was the education minister in the 1987 LDF government, had joined the Lok Shakthi when the Janata Dal had split. However, he is against party chief and Union Commerce Minister Ramakrishna Hegde's policy of aligning with the BJP at the Centre.

A faction of the Lok Shakthi merged with the Janata Dal recently.

As for Ramachandran Nair, he has not given a serious thought to the offer as he is embroiled in several vigilance cases slapped by the LDF government.

He is said to be sceptical of the BJP's chances as more eminent persons like Kerala Verma Raja, a scion of the erstwhile Travancore ruling family, could muster only 100,000 votes in the recent elections.

The BJP also tried to rope in national figures like T N Seshan and Professor M G K Menon in the last elections, but they refused to bite the bait considering the party's slow growth in the state.

Entering the state electoral fray in 1984 with a vote share of 1.71 per cent, the BJP has increased it to 8 per cent so far.

The BJP could not get any strong allies as almost all the parties with mass base are either backing the LDF or the opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front.

As each of them is assured of its quota of seats and positions, the parties are not willing for any political gamble.

Moreover, they are aware that the BJP's ideology will not carry any conviction in a state where about 40 per cent of the voters belong to the minorities.

What is more disturbing for the BJP leadership is that even the Hindu organisations are not willing to rally behind it.

The party was banking on the National Democratic Party. However, the NDP has preferred to go it alone after snapping its links with the UDF. So also the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, the socio-cultural organisation of the Ezhava community. The SNDP leadership has refused to support the BJP though the Sangh Parivar had come to the rescue of the community on many occasions.

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