The local body elections in Kerala are scheduled to be held in three phases on December 8, 10, and 14 with counting of votes happening on December 16. Elections will happen for 941 gram panchayats, 152 block panchayats, 14 district panchayats, 86 municipal councils, and 6 municipal corporations. With the BJP expanding its base in the state, the CPM is afraid of losing its ground and is resorting to win the elections by hook or crook.
Recently, it was revealed that there were independent candidates with similar names to that of the BJP candidates in wards where the BJP has a higher chance of winning. To add to this, the Kerala State Election Commission was allotting the ‘rose’ symbol (which looks similar to ‘lotus’) to these independent candidates with names identical to the BJP candidate’s name in order to confuse the voter. According to a report by Deccan Herald, at least eleven wards in Thiruvananthapuram have independent candidates with their names identical to that of BJP’s candidates and rose flower as a symbol.
For instance, the BJP candidate for Kazhakoottam ward is Anu G Prabha. An independent candidate named Anu is contesting with the ‘rose’ symbol. Similarly, M S Archana with rose flower symbol is about to play spoilsport to BJP’s Archana Manikantan. There are similar namesake independent candidates contesting under the rose symbol at four other local body wards in Thiruvananthapuram district.
BJP Kerala President K. Surendran has alleged that it was a deliberate attempt by the Pinarayi Vijayan government and the pro-left employees at the State Election Commission to spoil the chances of BJP in the elections. The party has decided to move the Kerala High Court seeking a rearrangement of the order of candidates in the EVM.
Meanwhile, another ploy of the Communist party has come to light. In a video that is going viral on social media, a CPM functionary can be heard advising the cadres to cast their votes before 11 AM and spread a rumour that someone in the booth has COVID so that nobody else comes to vote for other parties.
“By 11 AM all our votes should be gone to our parties. The CPM has decided that all the votes should be cast by 10:00-10:30 AM. Thereafter, go to every house and spread a rumour that someone in the booth has COVID so that no one else comes to vote, especially oldies.”, the CPM functionary says.
The BJP’s rise in Kerala seems to be posing a serious challenge to the Communist regime. The party had put up an impressive performance in the 2015 local body elections winning 35 out of 100 seats in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation alone. This time the national party is looking forward to expand its footprints in other areas making the Communist party to resort to deploy sinister plans to arrest its growth.