THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the UDF winning the elections in the state with a huge margin, the role played by religion and caste-based organisations has to be taken into account.
SNDP, the prominent organisation of the powerful Ezhava community, was not clear in its position, oscillating between the BJP and the Left Front. NSS, as always, openly took an equidistant stand in the elections. But it had taken an open stand regarding the Sabarimala issue with both the BJP and the Congress expecting the NSS votes to be in their kitty. Ultimately, it seems the NSS support has worked in favour of the Congress as both Kummanam Rajasekharan in Thiruvananthapuram and K Surendran in Pathanamthitta lost with huge margins.
The CPM and the Left Front fielded Veena George MLA from Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha seat expecting the outright support of the Orthodox Church as was during the last Assembly elections.
In the 2016 Assembly elections, the Orthodox church had openly stated Veena was the ‘daughter of the Church’, which worked in her favour as she trounced Sivadasan Nair. However, the Orthodox Church did not extend its support wholeheartedly to Veena this time, resulting in her drubbing.
The Catholic community seems to have voted extensively in support of the UDF. In constituencies like Ernakulam, Chalakkudy and Thrissur which have a sizeable Catholic population, the UDF candidates won with good margins.
Muslim consolidation in favour of the UDF was another phenomenon witnessed in this election and the community voted extensively for the UDF.
The presence of Rahul Gandhi from Wayanad helped in the consolidation of Muslim votes as he was projected as the Prime Minister candidate of the UPA.
A faction of the KPMS led by Punnala Sreekumar was extending its support to the LDF and Pinarayi Vijayan and it was in the forefront of the Women’s Wall. However, this did not help the prospects of the CPM and the LDF.