Thiruvananthapuram : The BJP’s Kerala unit appears to have found a new weapon in Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s recent statement on election irregularities. Days after Kharge demanded the dissolution of all state assemblies following the protests against the Election Commission of India, the BJP is trying to turn his statement on its head, accusing the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) of double standards on the legitimacy of elections in the state.
The UDF swept the Assembly elections held this year, winning 102 of the state’s 140 seats and reducing its principal Opposition, the Left Democratic Front, to 35. In his speech last week, Kharge called all elections illegal and demanded the dissolution of the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, saying fresh polls should be conducted using ballot papers.
For years, the Congress has alleged irregularities in electronic voting machines. But as the Opposition chorus against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar grows, the BJP, which won three seats, is seeking to portray the demand as evidence of Congress’s duplicity, particularly given the party’s own victory in the Assembly polls.
Significantly, neither the Congress nor the CPI(M), which was then in power, raised serious allegations against the SIR in Kerala. Their main objection was to the timing of the exercise, which was scheduled for February, around the time of the local body polls.
The Kerala Congress also finds itself in a peculiar position amid mounting allegations against the SIR, as the exercise was completed while Chief Minister V D Satheesan’s private secretary, Rathan U Kelkar, was serving as the state’s Chief Electoral Officer.
As a result, while the national capital is rife with Opposition protests, the streets of Kerala have remained largely silent. The only protest in the state was against the police action against the Gandhi siblings, Rahul and Priyanka.
It is against this backdrop that the BJP is seeking to frame its allegations. In a post on X, BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar questioned the legitimacy of the Kerala elections in light of the protests.
“Is this an illegal Assembly or a legal one? Congress National President says all these elections were illegal and all Chief Ministers are illegal. So, the first thing to be discussed in the Assembly is whether all of us MLAs are illegal,” Nemom MLA Chandrasekhar said in his post.
Meanwhile, in a letter to Chief Minister V D Satheesan, BJP MLA B B Gopakumar, the party’s leader in the Assembly, said the Congress president’s statement also covered the Kerala Assembly.
“If what the Congress president said is correct, Keralam Chief Minister came into power through rigging of the elections. At the same time, the chief minister was also seen participating in a protest in Delhi against the SIR. By taking part in that protest, he has brought humiliation upon the people of Kerala,” he said.
The BJP also held a core committee meeting on Thursday to discuss the “Congress double standard”.
“Why is Congress selectively questioning the outcome of elections held after the SIR? If the results are doubtful, is that not applicable to the results of Keralam elections too? The BJP will hold protests demanding the resignation of Satheesan as the chief minister,” senior BJP leader M T Ramesh said.
