#95 - Battleground Kerala: Will Pinarayi Vijayan return? | Bharatvaarta | Politics

Kerala is scheduled to go to the polls in May. Politically, it has largely been bi-polar, with power alternating between the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front and the Congress led United Democratic Front.

While the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government has praised for having delivered welfare schemes efficiently during the Kerala Floods of 2018, it’s recent mishandling of the COVID pandemic and also the spate of scams has cast a shadow on its performance. In the UDF, the Congress’ decline politically has mirrored the rise of the Muslim League who are now a more assertive ally, causing tensions between various allied demographics.

The Kerala Congress (Mani) split, with K M Mani's son Jose K Mani, allying with the LDF has made matters grave. Meanwhile, the BJP has seen a groundswell of support in recent times led by Prime Minister Modi’s own popularity; he has inaugurated multiple infrastructure projects in the State, recently, including the 2,000-MW Pugalur-Thrissur high voltage direct current (HVDC) power transmission corridor.

On this episode, we are joined by political experts and commentators, , Ananth Krishna Subhalakshmy and Rohit Jayaraman for a deep dive analysis of what factors could influence the results of this upcoming election.

0:00 - Introduction
0:57 - Introduction to politics in Kerala
4:59 - Other underlying factors and past elections
13:17 - Performance of LDF government
23:19 - Scams in the Kerala government
29:50 - Are there are any issues that the population will vote for?
33:24 - Christians becoming disillusioned due to the dominance of the Muslim League
40:41 - PM Modi and BJP's rising popularity in Kerala
49:30 - Predictions for who will come back to power
54:13 - Conclusion

[aswathi]

Interesting discussion as always. Appreciate the time stamps!

[ashforyou]

Three former communists discussing Kerala. Nice.

[shsumanta]

How can bjp come to power- hindu consolidation, division of muslim votes, divisions of muslim-christian votes, divide all and collect the hindu votes all around.
Its a very strange situation.