Thiruvananthapuram, March 19: When the BJP launched a missed-call membership drive nationwide in November 2014, it met with catcalls from the Kerala Left. Now with the CPM starting a missed-call campaign to woo voters ahead of the May 16 Assembly polls, the BJP is calling the comrades copycats.

Beneath the surface of the Left-BJP one-upmanship, however, some commentators have spied the undercurrents of an intra-party rivalry, that between hard-line politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan and former chief minister and mass leader V.S. Achuthanandan.

Under the campaign started on Wednesday, anyone making a missed call to a given number will instantly receive a return call with a pre-recorded message from Vijayan.

In his 37-second message, the former party state secretary questions the development claims of Congress chief minister Oommen Chandy and seeks votes for the Left.

"The response from the public has been enthusiastic. We received over one lakh calls in less than 24 hours,'' said V. Sivadasan, former national president of CPM student arm SFI who is involved in the Marxists' social media campaign.

But the CPM campaign has attracted tit-for-tat lampooning from the state BJP. The Marxists' social media activists had last year poured scorn on the rival's missed-call membership drive, posting memes showing people accidentally dialling a wrong number and ending up bloating the BJP membership list.

State BJP leader V. Muraleedharan termed the CPM a behind-the-times party that always criticised new technology at first before changing its mind and adopting it belatedly.

He cited the Marxists' initial opposition to computers and tractors. "Recently, they ridiculed our missed-call membership drive but now they themselves are doing tech-savvy campaigns, though a little late in the day," Muraleedharan said.

Fighting hard to open its account in the state, the BJP sees the CPM as its main adversary since both parties derive their strength from the Hindu vote bank.

Asked for his reaction, Sivadasan said: "It was the general public that saw through the BJP campaign and voiced their disapproval. In our case, it is just that we are using technology to our advantage.''

Some political commentators, such as the lawyer Sanku T. Das, however, have smelt a whiff of factionalism in the CPM's tech drive, seeing in it a subtle attempt to project Vijayan's supremacy over Achuthanandan.

"There is something called dog whistle politics.... Like only dogs can hear certain frequencies, this message is for those who want to see Vijayan as chief minister if the LDF comes to power," Das has written on Facebook.

"The CPM, which has still not been able to declare Vijayan as its candidate for chief minister is sending out the message to diehard followers that Vijayan is the undisputed choice."

He added: "While mocking at the CPM for copying the BJP, everyone forgets to ask why V.S. Achuthanandan isn't the one calling. The answer as to who is the one leading the party is covertly sent out."

Covertly, because the longstanding differences between Vijayan and Achuthanandan, the leader of the Opposition, has prevented the Left from showcasing a chief ministerial face. Vijayan is the hardliners' choice but lacks a voter-friendly image.

This is where Achuthanandan, 93 and still widely popular, becomes critical. The party knows that his presence in the campaign is vital.

Sivadasan said the party would soon come out with recorded messages from Achuthanandan and CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.

"The messages will be rotated,'' he said. Asked how he would answer someone who asked why Achuthanandan's message was not brought out first, he said: "Mad people will ask anything."