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Sonia worries about flagging minority support in Kerala

Sonia worries about flagging minority support in Kerala

Author: Liz Mathew
Publication: newkerala.com
Date: October 28, 2005
URL: http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=43343

Concerned over the party's falling support amongst minorities in Kerala, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is planning to send special emissaries to the state to lobby community leaders ahead of next year's assembly polls.

Sources close to Gandhi said the Congress president called a meeting of top Kerala leaders -- Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, state party president Ramesh Chennithala and senior leader A.K. Antony -- last week and asked them to take immediate steps to regain the support base.

"Gandhi told the leaders that she was ready to send senior party leaders Oscar Fernandes and Margaret Alva to talk to Christian community leaders, including the bishops," a top party official told IANS.

Although the leadership was concerned about the diminishing support base for the Congress and ally Indian Union Muslim League among Muslims, the meeting essentially focussed on Christians.

While Muslims constitute 25 percent of the state's 32 million population, Christians form 19 percent.

The Congress has been facing one electoral rout after another and could not manage a single seat in the last parliamentary elections in 2004. It fared no better in the recently held local body polls, with a landslide victory for the opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) in almost all 14 districts.

Congress leaders said a detailed analysis of the local body poll results indicated that the party's minority support base had "fallen alarmingly".

A section of the leadership has attributed the electoral drubbings to the increasing loss of support amongst minorities and backward communities.

Party leaders have also blamed former chief minister Antony, who alienated some communities with his reported remark that minorities had secured more privileges through collective bargaining.

"Both the communities had pressurised the Congress leadership to replace Antony with Chandy," a senior party leader from the state pointed out.

"If the leadership does not take any immediate steps to regain them, the party's future is bleak. It will be utterly poor in the upcoming by-election in the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency and the next state polls," the leader said.

The immediate challenge for the party is the Thiruvananthapuram by-election on Nov 18.


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