Headlines
Despite defeat, BJP smiles in Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram, June 30
Veteran BJP leader
O. Rajagopal finished third in Aruvikara constituency in Kerala on
Tuesday but the party's vote share saw a significant five-fold increase
from 2011.
The development stunned both the Congress, whose K.A.
Sabarinathan won the seat by 10,128 votes, and the Left. Sabarinathan
got 56,448 votes with CPI-M leader M. Vijayakumar finishing second with
46,320 votes.
The 85-year-old Rajagopal polled 34,145 votes, against the around 7,000 votes the party got in the 2011 assembly elections.
The BJP is yet to open its account in the 140-member Kerala assembly.
"I
am sad we could not finish in the second place but the writing on the
wall for the Oommen Chandy government is clear that corruption will not
be tolerated," said Rajagopal.
Rajagopal has contested more than
half a dozen elections in Kerala. He lost the 2014 Lok Sabha election to
Congress candidate Shashi Tharoor by a mere 15,000 votes.
"We
are the only party to see a huge growth in our voter base in Aruvikara,"
Bharatiya Janata Party state president V. Muraleedharan told IANS.
Chief
Minister Oommen Chandy played down the performance of Rajagopal, saying
the votes had been secured by him in view of his stature and not by the
BJP.
"The CPI-M's negative campaign also helped the BJP," said Chandy.
CPI-M
state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said there were a lot of
undercurrents in the constituency on caste creed and communal lines.
"This does not augur well," he said.
The BJP has been trying its
best for years to make an electoral mark in Kerala, where the two main
contenders for power are the Congress-led United Democratic Front and
the Left Democratic Front of the CPI-M.