THIRUVANANTHAPURAM/BENGALURU : Earlier this month, a car went past the tall gates of a building in Kerala’s Kottayam district. By the time it came out, after about 40 minutes, the celebrated former top diplomat of the United Nations sitting inside, Shashi Tharoor , may have been in all smiles. He had pulled off no less than a coup in the Kerala election, at least in the Thiruvananthapuram constituency where he is contesting, where many expect will witness Kerala’s most high-profile battle in this election.

The building was the high-profile headquarters of 105-year old Nair Service Society (NSS) at Perunna, Kottayam district and Tharoor had come to meet its chief G Sukumaran Nair, who called the communist chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has turned Kerala “from God’s own country to devil’s own country" recently. Traditionally, the Nairs in Kerala have preferred the communists. But now, with the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Pinarayi Vijayan seems adamant about reforming Hindu laws in Sabarimala that prevents women from entry, the communists risk of a desertion from the Nairs. Both Congress and the BJP are jockeying themselves in a position to capture that erosion.

Tharoor’s visit is important since his opponent has tried and failed to secure such a meeting for months now; he is Kummanam Rajasekharan, the BJP’s second most important vote-catcher in Kerala after their lone MLA O Rajagopal. The BJP has never won a parliamentary seat in Kerala and in the previous poll in 2014, it came the closest to winning in this seat, but was short of 15000 votes — sort of the population of about three villages. It is the surest bet the party is making on winning in 2019, which if succeeds would be historic. For Tharoor, it is a do-or-die situation for a loss would be a major setback not only for himself but for his party too.

For Tharoor to meet the NSS chief, who was seen as siding with the BJP after the Sabarimala controversy, at a time when the later has refused to meet his opponent, is a telling mark of the general sentiments of the caste outfit, even as there is no telling of how many of the NSS local workers vote according to the leader’s diktat. Mint confirmed the meeting details with two independent people who are in the know. Tharoor and Rajasekharan did not respond to calls for comment, neither did Sukumaran Nair. The CPM candidate, C Divakaran, also did not respond to the calls. As a former Kerala foods minister, Divakaran is known to have grassroots network in the constituency. His candidature also has a caste hue: he belongs to the Ezhava community, a traditionally mainstay of the Left, and can effectively split up the Hindu vote banks supporting Kummanam and Tharoor.

The developments show how caste wields a marked influence in the fortunes of political parties in Kerala. As the campaign for 23 April general election season heats up, it is no short of a spectacle. All three major parties—the CPM, the Congress and the BJP— are reaching out to their, or their enemy’s, mass bases in caste and religious outfits and begging for support and atonement of their sins.

Politicians like Tharoor are simply smart enough to realise how undercurrents like caste can influence the power game of elections in Kerala. Caste acts like a firehose of influence, which some may see as counter-intuitive given the electorate’s track record of cent-percent literacy and usually progressive politics.

“Caste is crucial in Kerala. The splitting up of Hindu votes on the basis of caste in Kerala is actually what keeps the political parties in check, if the Hindus had voted en-bloc for one party the BJP would have been a major force in Kerala long ago," said Jacob George, senior journalist and a political commentator.

“Former Congress chief minister Karunakaran was an expert in this. His masterstroke came in 1984 elections. He wanted to split up Nadars (which includes lower caste Hindus and converted Christians) voters in Thiruvananthapuram. He announced A. Charles, an unknown person in the political radar until then, and defeated the socialist heavyweight politician Neela Lohitha Dasan Nadar," said George.

There have been other instances. A famous one among them is how in 2002 December, AB Vajpayee, then prime minister, came for a ten days holiday in Kerala's Kumarakom, known for its backwaters, and made several attempts to meet the then NSS chief Narayana Panicker, but was turned down..

Academics like J Prabhash trace the long arm of caste and religious outfits in Kerala politics back to the days of Liberation struggle, a popular uprising against the first communist government in 1957 led by the Churches and the Hindu community organisations.

It is not a matter that is related to Hinduism alone, said Prabhash. Almost all religious denominations, especially Christians, have different factions who jostle for control in terms of both development and representations. It is a factor that is clearly seen in the neighbouring Pathanamthitta constituency. Congress candidate there Anto Antony, a two-term MP seeking another term, belongs to and is a favourite son of the Mar Thoma Church. The CPM made its own religion-based calculations when the party fielded Veena George. She was a popular television anchor and her husband was an executive member of the Orthodox Church, who numerically outnumber the Mar Thomas in Pathanamthitta. George also won an assembly seat in 2016.

But the CPM’s plans too face considerable hurdles. The Orthodox Church is apparently upset with the government over not handing over one of its church from another group, the Jacobite faction, despite a Supreme Court order. The Church spokespersons have been making disparaging comments against the government recently. “The state government calling a conciliatory talk with the Jacobite faction does not have any relevance. The Supreme Court had ruled in favour of the Orthodox faction regarding the control of 1,064 churches and, what is there for reconciliation without implementing the Supreme Court order," said Biju Oommen to New Indian Express newspaper this month. Oommen is Orthodox Church secretary.

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