Rahul wave,minority consolidation & Sabarimala help UDF sweep

: As Kerala witnessed a clean Congress-UDF sweep in the Lok Sabha polls, a host of factors, including the presence of Rahul Gandhi, minority consolidation and the alleged poor handling of the Sabarimala issue by the LDF government, seems to have helped the front.

Giving a rude shock to the Pinarayi Vijayan government, the opposition UDF surprisingly won 19 out of the total 20 seats with a victory margin of at least one lakh votes in 10 constituencies.

The LDF, which had to be satisfied with the lone seat of Alapuzha, where A M Ariff won by around 10,000 votes, faced further embarrassment as its traditional bastions --Alathur, Palakkad, Attingal and Kasaragod were wrested by the UDF.

The CPI(M)-led LDF leaders, including Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan had exuded confidence till the eve of the vote counting that the Front could repeat its 2004 LS poll results, in which they had won 18 of the 20 seats.

But when the votes were counted, the LDF suffered one of its biggest election debacles in the recent history in Kerala as 19 of its candidates bit the dust in the Congress-UDF wave.

In the 2014 LS polls, the LDF had won eight seats against UDF's 12.

According to political observors, the consolidation of minority votes in favour of the Congress across the state was one of the main reasons for the massive victory.

Both the ruling LDF and the opposition UDF had competed with each other throughout the campaign to inculcate a "Modi phobia" and trigger "anti-BJP" sentiments among minority voters.

But it seems that minorities had largely favoured the UDF out of an expectation that the Congress might come to power at the Centre defeating the BJP-NDA government, they said.

The candidature of AICC chief Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad, who was projected as UPA's Prime Ministerial candidtate, also helped in mass consolidation of the minority votes -especially of the Muslim community- in the Malabar (north Kerala) region.

The most surprising factor is that the votes of the majority Hindu community in the state also seems to have consolidated this time, which is said to be rare.

The Sabarimala agitation, which Kerala witnessed last year against the implementation of the apex court verdict permitting women of menstrual age at the Lord Ayyappa Temple, seems to have led to the consolidation of majority community votes against the Left government.

The adamant stand taken by the Chief Minister in implementing the September 28 verdict is considered to have impacted badly in the poll results, political observors said.

The BJP, which had spearheaded the agitations, had tried to capitalise the emotions of devotees and expected that they could open their maiden LS account in the state this time riding on the Sabarimala issue.

But the saffron party failed to win any seat despite
On Sabarimala, Chennithala said the Vijayan government