(As Kerala gears up for the Assembly polls, every week, Shaju Philip decodes the electoral trends, political signals, and campaign moves shaping the contest.)
When it comes to their stand on Muslims or parties dominated by the minority community, the CPI(M) and the BJP in Kerala appear to be almost on the same page ahead of the Assembly elections.
In recent elections, including the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the CPI(M) sought to consolidate Muslim votes by projecting itself as the only force capable of confronting the BJP and the larger Sangh Parivar. However, in its bid to retain its traditional Hindu vote base this time around, and with Muslims not backing it en masse in the parliamentary elections, the CPI(M) now faces accusations of fostering Islamophobia, a charge often directed at the BJP.
At the core of the allegations levelled by CPI(M) and BJP leaders is the claim that Congress ally Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) serves as the political face of right-wing Muslim organisations in Kerala, chiefly the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the political wing of the banned Popular Front of India.
The Jamaat-e-Islami, which advocates theocratic nationalism, has extended support to the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF). Some CPI(M) leaders, including former state minister A K Balan, have warned that if the UDF returns to power, the Jamaat would effectively control the Home Department, recalling that the UDF’s tenure from 2001 to 2006 was marked by communal riots. Last month, state minister Saji Cheriyan also faced a backlash after he linked the results in the local body election results in Kasargode and Malappuram — two Muslim-dominated areas — to communal polarisation. He was subsequently forced to withdraw his comments. The BJP, too, has accused the Congress of mainstreaming the Jamaat, which it says stands for an Islamic nation.
The shared concern of the CPI(M) and the BJP centres on the “repercussions” of the UDF alliance returning to power. Both parties invoke memories of the 2011-16 UDF government, a period they claim was marked by the IUML calling the shots and securing key portfolios that handled over 50% of the state’s revenue. Besides, the IUML had unilaterally declared its fifth minister in the UDF government in 2012, keeping Congress and the alliance leadership in the dark.
This political messaging gained wider traction after prominent Ezhava community leader Vellappally Natesan, another public figure known for making anti-Muslim remarks, amplified concerns about the IUML’s influence. Natesan, who until recently argued exclusively for Hindu unity, expanded the call to include Christians, lending a degree of legitimacy to the anti-Muslim narrative shared by the CPI(M) and the BJP.
While Natesan is known for his pro-CPI(M) leanings, his son Thushar Vellappally is the president of the Bharath Dharma Jana Sena, a BJP ally in Kerala. Though rumours of the two influential Hindu communities, Ezhavas and Nairs, seeking to unite initially did the rounds, Nair Service Society (NSS) leader Sukumaran Nair dismissed them after Natesan was awarded the Padma Bhushan last month.
IUML stands its ground
The IUML, meanwhile, appears to have reinforced the fears propagated by its rivals. In recent weeks, several of its leaders have asserted that the party has every right to stake a claim for the Deputy CM’s post if the UDF returns to power. This has created a strong impression in civil society that the party has yet to come to terms with Kerala’s evolving social realities.
The UDF’s defeat in the 2021 Assembly elections — when Kerala bucked its long-standing trend of alternating between the LDF and the UDF every five years — was partly attributed to the perception that the Congress would be controlled by the IUML. The decline of the regional Christian party Kerala Congress, which once wielded considerable influence within the UDF, further reinforced the optics of the IUML dominating the alliance. These fears were heightened when senior IUML leader P K Kunhalikutty, then a Lok Sabha MP, contested the Assembly elections, reportedly eyeing a prime position such as Deputy CM in the event of a UDF victory. While the party consolidated its base in Muslim-dominated Malappuram, the UDF lost ground in the rest of the state.
In the Lok Sabha elections since 2014, which marked the ascent of the BJP nationally, Muslims in Kerala have more or less voted en bloc for the party or the front capable of taking on the Sangh. However, its choice and voting pattern strikingly remained different in the Assembly elections. With the CPI(M) now echoing the BJP’s rhetoric, the voting behaviour of the community in the coming polls will be crucial.