Christians and Electoral Politics

There is a popular belief that Christians blindly vote for the Congress, en bloc. To a great extent the Congress has also allowed itself to believe this. Considering that a Congress–led coalition Government is now in power, it would be politically expedient to reaffirm that Christians are Congressites. Unfortunately, this if far from the truth, if one is to go by the voting pattern and results of E2004.

The All India Catholic Union (AICU) held its Working Committee Meeting in Goa shortly after the results were declared. Members from all over the country reported what happened at the grassroots level, while the national leaders gave an overview.

Let's first look at the results.

Five Christians were elected to the Lok Sabha from Kerala, where there is a heavy concentration of Christians. Not one of these is from the Congress.
Manoj Abraham won on the CPM ticket from Allapuzzha, as did his colleague Lonappan Nanbadan from Mukundapuram. He defeated Karunakaran's daughter
Padmaja by 1,30,000 votes. Sebastian Paul from Ernakulalm is an Independent supported by the Left Democratic Front (LDF). He won even though the bishop
of Cochin publicly espoused another candidate; two other bishops there, however, took a neutral stand. In contrast to their bishop, the Latin Catholic
Association in Ernakulam openly supported the LDF candidate, who won. Francis George of the Kerala Congress (Joseph), an ally of the LDF, won from
Idduki. Astoundingly, P.C. Thomas, a minister in the outgoing NDA Government, won from the Christian heartland of Moovathupuzha squeaking through by 539 votes. He had the tacit support of the bishops of the area. The Malankara Catholic Association had actively supported Manoj Abraham, who was the President of its Alleppey (Allapuzzha) unit. Lonappan's constituency is near Trichur, another Christian bastion, where several
parish units supported his candidature.

Kerala Christians were apparently bugged by the Congress Chief Minister A.K. Antony's "Soft Hindutva" approach. It is therefore apparent that in Kerala,
the Christians, quite literally, saw red!

This is not an isolated case. Neighbouring Tamilnadu, which has some pockets of Christians, mostly Dalit, also saw red. All three Christians MPs elected from this State are again from the Left parties. Mohan MP from Madurai and Belormir from Kanyakumari won on
CPM tickets, while Appadurai won from Thinkasi constituency on a CPI ticket. The DMK had included the Dalit Christian issue in its election manifesto.