“Results of the LSG Election are Unlikely to Affect the 2021 Assembly Elections,” Dr Gopakumar

KOCHI:
“When it comes to Kerala, nothing is apolitical. Even if party politics might not play a very important role in this election, developmental politics will have its relevance. Hence, Assembly elections in 2021 might not be affected by the LSG election results,” said Dr G. Gopakumar, former Vice Chancellor of the Central University of Kerala and Advisor, CPPR. He was speaking at a Facebook live event “Decoding the Polls” hosted by the Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR) on Monday, December 7, 2020. He also added that people tend to give more importance to regional issues than political factors in this election and it must be looked at as a positive thing.

Speaking at the session, Dr D Dhanuraj, Chairman at CPPR, mentioned the importance of the local politics scenario. Also, he made a point that the State politics and even National issues will not play an important role in this election by stating various examples like the CAA-NRC issues which are not seen being discussed in recent times. The panel discussed the various aspects of this local body election including the involvement and increasing participation of the youth and women. Mr Abraham K C, Academic Director at CPPR came up with a positive insight by saying “involvement of more women in politics can lead to less corruption and clean politics.”

Dr Dhanuraj also mentioned the psychology of Keralites wanting to give opportunities to new faces rather than the existing ones, which might prove advantageous for the NDA. Dr Gopakumar pointed to the impact made by the State government during the COVID-19 which can come to the greatest advantage for the LDF government. While analysing the political scenario in Kannur, he stated, “UDF has a strong hold in urban areas in Kannur, whereas rural areas are traditional LDF strong holds which will be difficult to penetrate. Therefore, Kannur Corporation might see a tight completion between the LDF and UDF.”

While analysing the political situation in Thiruvananthapuram, he also pointed that the general inactiveness of the UDF in Travancore area and the Kerala Congress issues can open up many possibilities for other competing candidates. The panel also discussed the rise in representation of Keralites in ISIS and concluded the discussion by pointing that this tendency has helped in creating an anti-Islamic sentiment among the Savarna Christians which might make them support the BJP.

The discussion was curated by Goutham K A, Project Associate, CPPR, and moderated by Abhraham KC, Academic Director, CPPR.