17 March 2014, 04:55 PM IST
Winning an election is all about numbers. Unlike sports or academics, merit doesn't have much of a role in democracy. Your identity – religion, caste or social status – does not matter in a 100-metre race. If you can run faster, you win the race. But when you fight an election, others decide the outcome. Politics in Kerala is yet to be freed from the clutches of caste and religion. It is again reflected in the candidate list of both the UDF and LDF for all the 20 constituencies.
Take Malappuram and Ponnani. Since 1977, only a Muslim candidate has won these seats. Though LDF won Manjeri in 2004, the candidate, T K Hamza, was a Muslim. On other occasions, Muslim League was the winner. CPM, that agent of revolution, this time, too, has carefully chosen Muslim candidates for Ponnani (V Abdul Rahman) and Malappuram (P K Sainaba).
BJP has a Hindutva agenda but it is far from simple. The party, which has fielded Christian candidates in Idukki (Sabu Varghese) and Kottayam (Noble Mathews), however, is yet to scale up its strategy and field Muslim candidates in Ponnani and Malappuram. It has stuck to saffron.
Ernakulam has a strong Latin Catholic presence. It is no wonder, then, that both UDF and LDF have fielded a candidate from the community – K V Thomas and Christie Fernandes. Since 1951, only once did Ernakulam sent a non-Christian candidate to Lok Sabha – V V Menon in 1967.
Take Thiruvananthapuram. You cannot ignore the Nair (roughly 3.75 lakh voters) and Nadar (close to 4 lakh voters) presence. UDF has a Nair in sitting MP and Union minister Shashi Tharoor and LDF has a Nadar in Dr Bennet Abraham, who belongs to the Church of South India. In 2009, Tharoor had defeated CPI's Ramachandran Nair. BJP, too, banks on O Rajagopal's Nair background.
Come to Kottayam. The dominance of Christian and Nair voters has seen a succession of Christian and Nair candidates from both UDF and LDF since 1952. This year, the three leading candidates are Christians — Sitting MP Jose K Mani (UDF), Mathew T Thomas (LDF) of JD(S) and BJP's Noble Mathew, a Kerala Congress turncoat. In Idukki, both fronts and BJP have fielded a Christian candidate to align with the matrix of religion.
Run through any of the 20 constituencies in Kerala, you will find how caste, community and religion shape the election outcome. After his party denied him a ticket, Congress MP from Idukki P T Thomas said Catholic Church's Idukki bishop Mathew Anikuzhikattil was thirsting for his blood.
There is nothing wrong in caste, community and religious groups jockeying for political position as far as democracy continues to be a numbers game. Editor and author B G Verghese contested from Mavelikkara in the post-emergency elections in 1977 as a CPM-backed independent. Verghese, whose name was initially put forward by L K Advani, was sent into the election fray by none other than Marxist guru EMS Namboothiripad. In his autobiography, First Draft, Verghese recalls, "As for the constituency, EMS said Mavelikkara would be best as this had a concentration of my community of Syrian Christians and included my family home, Thiruvalla."
Malayalis casting their vote may not change anytime soon.
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