Natesan’s claim of Congress surrender to IUML seen as move to isolate Muslims for BJP

Vellappally Natesan, general secretary of SNDP, who is known for his communal rhetoric targeting the Muslim community with the intention of alienating the major political parties from the Muslim community to create a safe path for the BJP in the coming Assembly elections, said the Congress had surrendered to the IUML and had no existence of its own, while he praised the BJP’s Kerala chief, saying that under his leadership the BJP was likely to increase its vote base by drawing support away from the Congress party.

In an interview on The Indian Express Malayalam podcast Varthamanam, Natesan alleged that the Congress in Kerala had become dependent on the IUML to the extent that it could not take decisions without the League’s approval, asserting that the party’s identity had been reduced to a subordinate role within the United Democratic Front (UDF).

He said the Congress’s reliance on the League had cost it credibility among different communities, as its leadership and political decisions were largely influenced by the IUML’s preferences and control.

He claimed that the Congress, once a strong political force in Kerala, had lost its community-based support, while the Christians were backing the Kerala Congress, now aligned with the Left Democratic Front (LDF), and the upper-caste Hindus were gravitating towards the BJP. He suggested that the IUML had grown dominant within the UDF, allegedly controlling key portfolios during previous Congress governments and sidelining other communities in the process.

The SNDP leader, who had earlier formed the Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) that remains a constituent of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), argued that the BJP had resurged in Kerala under its current president Rajeev Chandrasekhar, and that its rise would primarily affect the Congress vote share. He said the Congress would suffer the most from the BJP’s expansion, which would potentially alter the state’s political equations in favour of the NDA.

Natesan, who had long accused the Congress and IUML of discrimination against the Ezhava community, reiterated that the educational and administrative policies of previous governments had marginalised the community, favouring Christian and Muslim institutions instead. He said such partiality had forced the SNDP to assert itself politically and that the IUML, once an ally in backward community causes, had later ignored their interests after attaining ministerial influence.

He also targeted the Congress leadership, particularly Opposition Leader V D Satheesan, and predicted that the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF would retain power in the next election due to the Congress’s internal weaknesses.