The UDF’s electoral alliance with the Welfare Party of India (WPI) has resulted in the erosion of secular credentials of the Congress and culminated in the shifting of traditional Christian minority votes against the front in central and northern Kerala, according to an editorial in Sathyadeepam, the mouthpiece of powerful Syro-Malabar Church.
It was while reviewing the local body poll results that the Church made its thoughts on the shifting of voting patterns and community loyalties known.
The Church noted that the shifting of the Jose K. Mani-led Kerala Congress faction to the LDF was one factor that was instrumental in gravitating the Christian minority votes in favour of the Left alliance.
IUML factor
The return of Indian Union Muslim League leader P.K. Kunhalikutty to the State politics and the campaign that the Congress was playing second fiddle to the IUML were also points to be pondered in the electoral context, it observed.
The Church cautioned that the ways in which the various political fronts would address the political insecurity of the Christian minorities would be decisive in the upcoming Assembly polls.
Both the UDF and the LDF will have to sit back and take note of the intervention of the Prime Minister in the issues between the Jacobite and Orthodox Christian factions and the distribution of the welfare funds for the minorities, the article felt.
The Church also took strong exception to the raising of the Jai Sri Ram banner at Palakkad municipality where the BJP retained power and concluded that the event exposed the communal agenda of the party. It has also proved that the BJP’s secular postures in the State were a farce, it noted.
Civic polls
The policies and political positions of the UDF in the civic polls came under the scanner as the front suffered a major blow in the civic polls, pointed out Fr. Mathew Kilukkan, the priest who authored the editorial for the latest issue of the publication.
While the LDF government, through its COVID management and welfare measures, succeeded in creating the impression that it was a regime that cared for the people, the UDF handed over the control of its poll campaign to one or two mainstream media.
The Opposition failed to seize the opportunity and expose the shortcomings of the government. The contradictory public statements made by the UDF leaders on sensitive issues and the sharing of seats on the basis of group affiliations did the front in, observed the editorial.
