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BJP gets pally with Mani to woo Christians

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

Last week's talks between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Kerala Congress-Mani, a party known for its Christian bias, has come as a shock to the powerful Church leadership in Kerala.

Though KC-M leader K M Mani has ruled out the possibility of any electoral understanding with the BJP, people who know his mind see clear motives behind the discussion: the move is to further the leader's quest for power. And the BJP, knowing well Mani's craze for it, is said to be ready to offer him a Cabinet position if his party cooperates.

Church leaders, refusing to comment on the Mani-BJP parleys in Kannur, admit in private that the exercise has given the saffron brigade an acceptability which it never enjoyed in Kerala.

The BJP's keenness to make a foothold in Kerala's Christian community is understandable in the light of its failure to win over the Hindus. The party had made a concerted effort during the 1996 election to forge an alliance with the National Democratic Party, a political arm of the powerful Nair community, after it had severed its links with the Congress-led United Democratic Front. The NDP, however, had not only refused to toe the BJP line but also helped the Left Democratic Front in the election.

The BJP does not seem to be very optimistic about its current effort to woo the Ezhavas, a powerful backward Hindu community. Party president L K Advani's attempt to identify with the community during the launch of his party's campaign in Kerala last week has yielded rather disappointing results.

With the Christians, too, the BJP will have to wipe off a lot of anti-saffron feelings if the party has to reap votes. The dalit Christians, who constitute a major chunk of the Christian vote bank in Kerala, are annoyed with it for opposing the reservation benefits to them.

The Church leaders also view BJP as a communal force trying to develop a schism between the Christians and Hindus. They are still not ready to forgive the party for its attempt to consolidate the Hindus against the Christians over the construction of a cemetery near a temple in Vaikam, Kottayam district.

"If Mani jumps into any political adjustment with the BJP, it will boomerang on him," Christian leaders warn.

The KC-M, which has split into four splinter groups, has a track record of changing sides for political gains. The party had brought down the E K Nayanar government in 1981, and joined hands with the rival UDF to come to power. In 1990, its bosses had hobnobbed with the Chandra Shekhar government at the Centre to find a Cabinet berth. But the move was scuttled by senior Congress leader K Karunakaran.

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