Battle Wayanad: NDA shies away from naming stronger candidate; political greenhorn Thushar a non-starter

After Rahul Gandhi’s announcement of contesting the Wayanad seat on Sunday, March 31, 2019, there was much speculation to see who the right-wing contestant will be. There were several clamours for a strong NDA candidate. However, all that came from the BJP president Amit Shah on Monday afternoon was that their ally Thushar Vellappally, president of Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) would be their Wayanad candidate.

The seat was allocated to BDJS on March 20, but there were speculations that if Rahul Gandhi were to contest, then a stronger candidate would be the opponent. Vellapally is primarily a businessman based in Dubai.

This points to the fact that there is no strong candidate within the NDA to take on Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

What is well-known in the state is that in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the BDJS did not even exist. The party was created in December 2015 as a political outfit of Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, a social organisation of the backward Ezhava community. Then, during its creation, its general secretary and Thushar Vellappally’s father, Vellapally Natesan, had said that it “was a secular party. The aim of the party is not to make a Hindu Rashtra”. The state’s Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, belongs to the Ezhava community too.

Even in the 2016 Assembly elections, BDJS had failed to make any inroad. They had contested in 36 seats out of the 140 seats and had garnered less than 4 per cent of the votes.

Contrary to popular perception, Wayanad has 49.7% Hindu population, 21.5% Christians and 28.8% Muslims. Of the Hindu population, 45.4% belong to Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe. Ezhavas form only 3.5% of the district’s population.

Last year, the Senior Natesan had strongly criticised the right-wing aligned Sabarimala Karma Samiti for having sought protection of the age-old customs of the shrine, referring to it as “not reflecting a meeting of all Hindu sections”. He had also strong supported Vijayan’s ‘Wall of Women’ organised by the state.

In 2014 and 2009, MI Shanavas of the Congress won the seat, defeating the Communist Party of India (CPI). The seat has been vacant since Shanavas’s death in November 2018.

Allowing a greenhorn or rather a saffronhorn to take on Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad shows that the NDA and its allies are running away from Wayanad. And it’s not the other way around.