Why a Son voted against his Mother, a BJP Candidate

By Vargese Pamplanil

There's an election story from Kerala that you shouldn't miss in the flurry of headlines about Bihar dominating your newsfeed right now. Elections to civic polls were held in Kerala last week and one man's Facebook post about why he didn't vote BJP is now going viral. Here's why – the BJP candidate he was not voting for was his mother.

Rajesh Kumar, a police constable, explains in Malayalam just why he voted against his mother Jagadamma in the gram panchayat elections in Thamarakulam. "I am proud that I did not let my love for my mother stop me from doing my duty towards the nation," he writes in a post that has been liked by over 10,000 people and shared over 4,700 times.

The News Minute translates Mr Kumar's post to read: "My mother, who was a BJP candidate in Thamarakkulam panchayat 6th ward has lost. A postal vote against her by her son, a government employee, was also a reason for her failure. I write this with a lot of pain. I am more nationalistic than any 56" man and I am worried about the 126 crore people in my country."

Mr Kumar accuses his mother of having forgotten "the national pledge" she taught him and attacked the BJP's work in Gujarat and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in his strongly-worded post. "After 15 years of Modi's rule, Gujarat was in 28th position in the primary education index. A large percent of Gujaratis do open defecation. There are no clean cities in Gujarat… Mohan Bhagwat told upper castes 'here is the sword, reservation will end soon and old slaves will be back'. At the same time, Modi told the Ezhavas (lower castes) here, to keep the sword and reservation will continue. They thought they will bring the upper and lower castes together, with this idiotic Utopian dream of a Hindu Rashtra and eliminate the minorities with the same sword given by them," he writes, according to The News Minute.

He ends his post with this plea to the nation: "We are a generation that will have to fight and struggle for a next generation in which men, women and transgenders can live without any discrimination. To protect a forward thinking, democratic and secular nation like India from religious extremism, we will have to make many sacrifices."

The Left Democratic Front, led by the Communist Party if India (Marxist), won the civic body polls in Kerala.