Commies have always been bloodsuckers. Could never understand why the idiots in West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala kept voting them back in. Now thankfully they're out from WB and Tripura. I'm not so sure about Kerala. Even though Congis are ruling there, in Kerala politics even a 3-4% swing in votes can bring the commies back in.
But you deserve the govt you elect. So if the people of Kerala want the commies, they'll get their commies.
Not that Mamata in WB and Cong in Kerala are any better.
The Communist politics in kerala is crystallised around
caste. I'm from the caste that is 24 % of kerala's population, and the CPM's biggest, most loyal vote bank. Our people (as well as the dalits) didn't vote for CPM beacause of European Marxist socialism or Nehruvian secularism or any of that **. Back in the good ol' days, when our people were treated like ****, the CPM was the 1st party that gave us an ideology to organised around , protest ,revolt & atleast bring a change to the status quo.
We benefited greatly from the Land and Caste reform laws passed by the early CPM govts as well. What you see today is mostly gratitude for all that .
Around the early 60's kerala politics saw a major shift. Honorable
Nehru ji's govt at the centre simply dismissed the legally ELECTED 1st Communist govt of Kerala using the centres excessive powers because the big landlords - Upper caste hindus and Christian churches (Upper caste) teamed up with the congress to launch revolts against "Land redistribution" . This meant that the
Godless communists attracted all the peasants - OBC and Dalit hindus , over 60% of all hindus in kerala, to their side, while the
god lovingCongress attracted the
Hindu Upper castes + Christians +Muslims. .
This polarization remains to this day.
The only difference now being that , as the Minority (especially Muslim) population in kerala started growing , the congress started sidelining Hindu UC leaders (K. Karunakaran etc) within the party and promoted the IUML (muslim League) as well as Christian leaders. So since the late 90's positive sentiment for BJP has been growing , especially amongst upper castes. That has only translated to electoral success post 2014.
One key difference this time is that, even within the CPM , the minority outreach shown by the CPM in past 2 decades is seen as happening at the cost of the position/representation of OBCs and Dalits within the party .This is also funneling lower caste hindus (mostly OBCs ) into the BJP.
If the BJP in kerala is ready to share power (I mean actual power , because over 90% of all positions of leadership in BJP now are from one Caste alone - the nairs) , with the OBC and dalits castes, you'll see more and more people lower caste vote BJP in my state. That's good enough to make BJP the main opposition party there.
Its the centuries old distrust over historical baggage that is keeping the lower castes from joining the BJP, not some misplaced sense of righteousness or 'secularism' .