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The Bharatiya Janata Party's attempt to end its electoral drought in Kerala by gaining acceptance among religious and social organisations has fizzled out with leaders of two influential communities refusing to go along with the Sangh Parivar.
The BJP wanted to bring together scattered Hindu organisations, especially the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam, representing the backward Ezhava community, and the Nair Service Society, championing the interests of the upper caste Nair community.
As per a plan mooted by BJP president Venkaiah Naidu at a party meeting in Thiruvananthapuram a couple of months ago, the party was to contest the next assembly election with their support.
The Ezhavas were staunch supporters of the Communist Party of India-Marxist until the party sought to sideline their leader K R Gowri and targeted their institutions during the previous Left Democratic Front regime.
However, rather than support the BJP, the SNDP is showing signs of returning to the CPI-M fold.
SNDP president P K Vidyasagar and general secretary Vellappally Natesan had on Tuesday held a meeting with CPI-M politburo member V S Achutanandan in Thiruvananthapuram.
Though neither has divulged the details of the discussions, the meeting resulted in the SNDP calling off its nearly month-long agitation against the CPI-M.
The meeting came in the wake of a concerted attempt by the SNDP to wean away the Ezhava population from the CPI-M. The SNDP had succeeded in setting up several branches in CPI-M citadels in north Kerala fighting the money and muscle power of the party.
The CPI-M had also given vent to its ire against the Ezhavas for breaking their traditional kinship with the party.
At that time, the BJP and members of the Sangh Parivar had backed the SNDP against the CPI-M, which the latter viewed as an attempt to woo the Ezhavas.
The ceasefire between the SNDP and the CPI-M has naturally dampened the spirits of the Sangh Parivar.
With the NSS, the Sangh Parivar had a rather humbling experience. NSS general secretary P K Narayana Panicker cancelled his appointment with Vishwa Hindu Parishad all-India general secretary Mohan Joshi at the NSS headquarters at Changanacherry in Kottayam district early this week.
The NSS leadership was apparently angry over the publicity the Sangh Parivar had given to the personal meeting. They felt the propaganda was aimed at exploiting the name of the NSS for political mileage.
"We will not allow any political party to interfere in our affairs and exploit the goodwill we enjoy for political gains. We have no intention of aligning with any political party, including the BJP," said G Sukumaran Nair, assistant secretary of the NSS.
Subsequently, VHP state organising secretary Kummanam Rajashekharan described the NSS as 'un-courteous'.
"If Changanacherry Arch Bishop Joseph Powathil could warmly welcome the VHP leader, there was no reason for the NSS to deny him an audience," he said. "We only wanted to maintain our traditional friendship with the NSS," he added.
BJP state president C K Padmanabhan believes the media focused on the Panicker-Joshi meeting at the behest of its political opponents who wanted to frustrate its plan to build bridges with the NSS.
The NSS had been closely associated with the VHP since its formation in 1966. NSS founder Mannath Padmanabhan was the one to light the lamp at the inauguration of the VHP unit in Kerala at the Guruvayoor temple.
The BJP had targeted the Hindu social and religious organisations after failing to elicit the support of smaller parties, which are firmly entrenched in either the ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front or the opposition LDF.
Earlier, the party had unsuccessfully courted the Kerala Congress (M), a regional party championing the interest of Christians, during the last assembly election.
Though the KC (M) remained elusive, the BJP succeeded in engineering a split in the party with one faction joining the National Democratic Alliance.
More reports from Kerala
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