Why Kerala's Twenty20 Party Joined The NDA

'When the prime minister and home minister promised their full support for the development of Kerala, why should we not be a part of them?'

In 2015, when Sabu M Jacob, managing director of the Kitex group, started the Twenty20 political party to fight the Left Democratic Front and United Democratic Front in the panchayat elections in Kizhakkambalam, a small gram panchayat in Kerala's Ernakulam district, it did not make news.

But it became national news when Twenty20 won 17 out of 19 wards it fought in the panchayat elections with a thumping majority.

There was no looking back for Sabu Jacob and Twenty20 after that.

In the recent local body elections, Twenty20 retained the 4 panchayats which it had swept in the 2020 election but lost power in two.

A few days ago, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Kerala, Sabu Jacob surprised many by announcing his party's decision to join the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.

"Since both the LDF and UDF are fighting us, there is only one other alliance we can join hands with. That is the NDA. So, we decided to have an alliance with them," Mr Jacob tells Rediff's Shobha Warrier.

You had always been quite critical of political parties and politicians. What made you join hands with the NDA?

I fight with whoever fights with me.

Here in Kerala, the LDF and the UDF always fight with me. So, I fight back.

If you take the last 14 years of my political history, the BJP has never opposed me or fought with me.

But the BJP has been non-existent in Kerala...

Yeah, the BJP is not very prominent. They don't have any MLAs. They have only one Parliament seat. Now they have the Trivandrum corporation. I agree, other than that, they have not much presence in Kerala.

'In the last 14 years, we have stood alone.'

Twenty20 had been an independent party till now, standing alone...

Correct. In the last 14 years, we have stood alone.

In the recent local body elections, the LDF and UDF worked together to defeat us.

The UDF has almost 11 parties. So also the LDF. Along with these 22 parties, the PDP, the Welfare Party, etc ganged up together and formed an alliance. And they contested against Twenty20 under a single symbol.

The idea was to finish Twenty20 forever.

We fought against them and won 10% more seats than the 2020 election.

We won the four panchayats we had won before, but lost two panchayats.

We are ruling four panchayats, and we are in opposition in two.

This made me rethink about our future strategy.

Since both the LDF and the UDF are fighting us, there is only one other alliance we can join hands with. That is the NDA. So, we decided to have an alliance with them.

Will it in any way affect the ideology you have been following till now?

Our ideology is development of the country, and welfare of the people.

If you look at the NDA or the BJP, they also follow the same ideology; development and welfare of the people.

So, we felt that was the only party we could join hands with.

You mean the BJP?

Not the BJP, the NDA.

No, we are not joining hands with the BJP, we have joined the NDA.

We are part of the NDA, but we are not part of the BJP.

Yes, the BJP is the major party in the NDA. Like the Congress is the major party in the UDF and the Communist party is the major party in the LDF.

'We never talk about religion in our party'

Do you agree with the ideology of Hindutva and Hindu Rashtra followed by the BJP?

See, we never talk about religion in our party.

We are the only political party that has been in existence for the last 14 years but we never spoke about religion.

I believe that politics is separate from religion. It is true that everyone is taking advantage of religion.

40% of our party is constituted by Christians, another 40% are Hindus and maybe 20% are Muslims.

That makes us the only secular party in Kerala.

Did you have to think a lot before taking the decision to join the NDA? You have fought alone for 14 years as an independent entity...

You are right.

But after 14 years, we have to take this decision as the LDF, the UDF and other parties decided to fight us. They want to finish off Twenty20.

So, I took the decision to join hands with the ruling party of India.

So, you felt for the survival of Twenty20, you had to be a part of a bigger alliance?

No..no.. See, even when all these 25 parties together fought against us, they could not do anything.

Our vote share increased from 10% to 12.2%.

We are still ruling four panchayats, we are in the Opposition in two panchayats.

We felt our ideology could be spread across Kerala through this alliance.

When the prime minister and the home minister promised their full support for the development of Kerala, why should we not be a part of them?

In the last 10 years of the LDF, Kerala has gone 30 years back.

Everybody is leaving Kerala. Youth are leaving Kerala.

I want this to stop.

'No development, No welfare in Kerala'

Is it because of corruption? What do you think is the reason why the situation is going bad?

Corruption is one issue.

There is no development, there is no welfare, nothing.

Prices are shooting up. People cannot live here as there is no employment here.

There is no hope for them in Kerala. That's why they are moving.

80% of our youth, between the ages of 18 and 30, have left Kerala.

Kerala has become an old age home where you can stay after you are 70 or 75.

Can you believe the average age of the people of Kerala is above 60? In a developing country, this should not happen.

We feel along with the NDA, we can change Kerala and bring the youth back to the state.

Did you have conversations with the members of your party before joining the NDA? How did they react?

I discussed the idea with state level leaders, and they entrusted me to take the right decision.

With that power, I took the decision to join the NDA.

After joining the NDA, we had discussions with the ward committees and the state committees, and everyone, without exception, agreed to the idea. Not even one person objected to it.

They said they would support whatever decision the president had taken for the party.

There was a press conference by a panchayat level leader from your party and she said she along with many others were quitting Twenty20...

We have 15.2 lakh members in the party.

One or two or three people have left the party. That is not going to make any difference.

So many people are leaving the Communist party, the Congress and even the BJP. It is normal.

When three people left our party, in the last two days, so many people have shown interest to join us. I can confidently say that thousands of people are joining our party.

Their confidence in Twenty20 has gone up because we are supported by the ruling party of India, and the prime minister.

'PM has promised full support for development of Kerala'

Did you have a meeting with the prime minister? How do you describe the meeting?

I will show you the photos. Then, you will see how he looks at Kerala and this alliance.

We have had not one but several meetings, and in all the meetings, he promised full support for the development of Kerala.

Why should I worry when the prime minister himself promises his support?

The UDF swept the local body elections. What do you foresee in the assembly election?

In Kerala, the approach of people to the Parliament election, assembly election and local body election is different.

The entire scenario has changed now.

After this alliance, people will look at the assembly election in a different way.

This alliance is a win-win situation for the BJP and Twenty20.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff