The Lotus does not bloom in God's own country

Thiruvananthapuram, May 11 (UNI) The 'Lotus' did not bloom in 'God's Own Country' yet again as all efforts by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to get an electoral breakthrough in Kerala went in vain.

The BJP state leaders were confident that they could send at least two representatives to the 12th Assembly and to realise this dream they brought in all their national leaders right from the National President, to conduct the election campaign.

However, the people did not fulfil their expectations.

The BJP had hopes in Manjeswar, Kasaragod and Palakkad and fielded M Narayana Bhat, V Ravindran and former Union Minister of State for Railways O Rajagopal, respectively, to achieve their goal.

Though none of them could win over the people, in Manjeswar and Kasaragod, their candidates succeeded in getting second place.

However, Mr Rajagopal, who sought his fortunes from Palakkad, his native place, said this would be his last electoral contest. He had to be satisifed with the third spot behind the Congress.

Palakkad was considered the most 'fertile land for the lotus to bloom' as it was here they got their first councillor, first vice-chairman to Palakkad Municipality and first Union Minister.

However, Mr Rajagopal managed to get only 27,667 votes with K K Divakaran of the CPI(M) winning the seat defeating the Congress candidate A V Gopinath.

However, Mr Rajagopal got double the votes that the BJP's Rema Reghunandan polled in 2001.

In Manjeswar BJP put up a spirited fight against C H Kunhambu of the CPI(M). It got 34,413 votes against 39,242 votes by Mr Kunhambu, who wrested the seat from the IUML, pushing Mr Cherkalam Abdulla to third place. In the 2001 elections, the BJP candidate C K Padmanabhan had earned 34,308 votes.

In Kasaragod, the BJP improved its position gaining second spot, polling 28,432 votes, pushing the LDF candidate to the third place.

In the last edition it was in the third position.

Overall polling percentage of the BJP also came down drastically, though its leaders claimed it would improve. The party could earn only 4.78 per cent votes against 12 per cent votes it had polled during the last Lok Sabha elections.

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