Will M V Govindan's RSS gaffe pay heavy price for LDF in Nilambur?

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite CM Pinarayi Vijayan’s late attempt to set the record straight on CPM-RSS connection, the exact consequences of the remarks made by CPM state secretary M V Govindan will be known after June 23. Just hours before the Nilambur polls, Govindan elaborated on the little-known CPM collaboration with RSS during the emergency era. It is not known whether the remark was a last-ditch attempt to bring RSS people to the CPM fold in Nilambur. In reality, the remark boomeranged and put CPM on the defensive. This happened at a time when the CPM were relentlessly targeting UDF over their leanings with the Welfare Party of India.

In 2012, V.S. Achuthanandan visited the house of the murdered T.P. Chandrasekharan on the day of the Neyyattinkara by-election, shaking Kerala's political landscape. When the results were announced, UDF scripted a historic victory in the CPM fortress.

It was on an LS polling day that news surfaced about E.P. Jayarajan’s covert meeting with BJP’s Prakash Javadekar. CPM bore the brunt of the controversy on the result announcement day.

It was to avoid a similar embarrassment that the chief minister himself appeared before the media yesterday to clear the air over the RSS-CPM nexus. The chief minister threw the CPM state secretary under the bus to revive CPM chances in Nilambur.

If UDF win Nilambur and the voter share of BJP goes down, it will be a big weapon for the opposition to turn against CPM and mostly M V Govindan. It seems like even Govindan’s party cadres will not come to his defence this time.