Veliyam alleges vote sale by BJP

Special Correspondent

Says BJP transferred votes to UDF

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: State secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) Veliyam Bhargavan has alleged sale of BJP votes to the UDF in the just-concluded Assembly elections.

Giving out a `preliminary’ list of seven constituencies where vote sale allegedly took place, Mr. Bhargavan told a news conference here on Saturday that the voting figures pertaining to 2001 Assembly elections, 2004 Lok Sabha elections and the just-concluded Assembly elections would show that there was a sharp erosion in BJP votes and a surprisingly commensurate increase in the UDF tally. This, he said, clearly showed that there was transfer of BJP votes to the UDF. The Congress leadership should come clean how much money it had spent to purchase the BJP votes, he said.

The CPI State secretary pointed out that the BJP had got only 7,38,224 votes (4.75 per cent of the total votes polled) this time as compared to 18,22,920 votes secured by the party in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. This suggested erosion of over 10 lakh votes from the tally in 2004. At the same time, the share of votes of the Congress has gone up by around 10 lakhs in the Assembly election from the level in 2004. If purchase of votes on this scale had not taken place, the UDF would have lost several of the seats it had now won, Mr. Bhargavan said.

He said there was nothing surprising about the BJP strategy as it had been doing this since 1980 and the `Vadakara-Beypore’ model clandestine tie-up tried by the Congress and the BJP in 1991, about which there was an extensive discussion in the biography of late K. G. Marar, clearly showed to the extent to which the Congress and the BJP would go. It was after tying up with the BJP and purchasing its votes that the Congress was accusing the LDF of having allied with communal outfits, he added.

Seven constituencies

The seven constituencies cited by him to support his contention are Nemom, Aryanad, Punalur, Chengannur, Koduvally, Beypore and Thalassery. In Nemom, the BJP’s vote share had fallen from 16,872 in 2001 and 40,320 in 2004 to a bare 6,705.

The UDF won the seat by a margin of 9,357 votes. In Aryanad, the BJP vote share fell from 6,138 in 1996 to 1,834 in 2006 and the UDF won the seat by a margin of 2,198 votes. In Punalur, the BJP votes fell from 4,660 in 2001 to around 1,000. This did not affect the LDF here because it had taken precautionary measures. In Chengannur, the BJP votes fell from 12,598 in 2001 to 3,299 votes. The UDF won the seat by 1,465 votes. In Koduvally, the BJP votes fell from 9,000 in 2001 to 6,275, in Beypore from 23,508 votes in 2004 to 12,667 votes in 2006 and in Thalassery from 11,120 votes in 2004 to 2,589 votes.

This was the result of a preliminary examination of the figures. Only a detailed analysis of the results would show the real magnitude of the BJP-Congress vote transfer, Mr. Bhargavan said.

The CPI State secretary said the severe setbacks suffered by the Muslim League is the most noteworthy aspect of the Assembly elections. The people had zeroed in on the cream of the present League leadership and defeated them.

This showed how much they had got alienated from the ordinary Muslim masses. The Muslim League leaders of the past were firm believers in God and religion and were guided in all their actions by certain principles and values, but that is not the case with the present crop of leaders and the party had been forced to pay a heavy price for this, he added.

He refuted the allegation that the LDF had sought the support of the Jamaat-e-Islami and the PDP and said both the organisations had offered support for the LDF on their own and that the LDF had not given them any assurance in return. The Left had all along defended the minorities against onslaughts from the Sangh Parivar and it had also denounced the eight-year-long incarceration of Abdul Nasir Maudany without trial. The people had recognised this and had chosen to back the LDF in the elections. It should not also be forgotten that the LDF had scored an even more resounding victory in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections without support from any of these organisations, he pointed out.

`Fitting treatment’

Asked if the CPI thought that the defeat of some of its leaders in the elections involved a foulplay, Mr. Bhargavan said it would be too early to say anything of the kind. On the decimation of the Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran), he said it was a fitting treatment for a party that was floated to promote the selfish motives of a family. The DIC(K) had threatened to work for the defeat of CPI candidates, but they had themselves floundered, he said.