With the BJP deciding to field senior leader and former Union Minister O Rajagopal as its candidate for the June 27 Assembly bypoll in Aruvikkara, it has become clear that the constituency in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram district will witness a tough triangular electoral battle. The bypoll was necessitated by the death of Speaker G Karthikeyan of the Congress, who had been representing the constituency, in March.
The scam-beleaguered Congress-led ruling UDF had on Saturday announced the name of KS Sabarinath, son of Karthikeyan, for candidature in an admission of its own uncertainty over its ability to win this by-poll in a political battle. It was also an admission of the UDF’s conviction that the only chance it had got was to bank on the sympathy factor. The by-poll is extremely crucial for the UDF whose Government is under a shadow of corruption with two senior Ministers facing Vigilance probe over the charge of accepting crores of rupees as bribe from the State’s bar owners. The coalition itself is in big trouble due to feud among constituent parties and intense group war in the Congress.
The CPI(M)-led lDF, for which the by-poll is important as it has to prove its capability of returning to power, had declared top Marxist leader M Vijayakumar, former State Minister and former Speaker, as its candidate on Friday itself. The lDF will launch its campaign in Aruvikkara with a grand convention on Wednesday. Aruvikkara (formerly Aryanad) is known as a traditional UDF stronghold which was being represented by Karthikeyan since 1991. He had won the last election there by a margin of 10,674 votes. However, the Assembly segment had shown some change in this trend in the last lok Sabha election when the lDF candidate had claimed a 4,000-vote lead over the UDF.
“The State BJP leadership has decided to recommend the name of Rajagopal for candidature in Aruvikkara for the approval of the central leadership,” Kerala party chief V Muraleedharan said in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday, adding that there was the need of a candidate who could take on both the UDF and lDF. The State BJP leadership picked Rajagopal as candidate rejecting the names proposed by the party’s Thiruvananthapuram district committee. Rajagopal’s mission is to see if the party can open its electoral account in the State through this by-poll. The leadership feels that the party has a fair chance to win the by-poll in Aruvikkara where it has thousands of enrolled members.
Rajagopal’s track-record of claiming the second place in the Thiruvananthapuram lok Sabha seat in the 2014 election and of taking the BJP vote-share up to over 30,000 from a mere 6,000 in the Neyyattinkara Assembly seat in the 2012 by-election was the main reason for the leadership’s decision to select him as candidate for the by-poll. Poll-watchers feel that Rajagopal’s arrival on the by-poll scene has created apprehensions in the minds of the campaign managers of both the lDF and the UDF. “They don’t think that Rajagopal will win but they are uncertain about whose votes he will be taking away,” said a senior journalist.
Meanwhile, election fever has gripped Aruvikkara with both the main fronts, the UDF and lDF, starting electioneering across the constituency. UDF candidate Sabarinath and lDF’s Vijayakumar met voters in many parts of the constituency on Sunday. Panchayat and booth-level campaign meets are to begin shortly. However, it was clear on Sunday that Sabarinath and the UDF had nothing more than the sympathy factor to bank on. “I can see the people of Aruvikkara extending to me almost the same love they had shown to my father. That is giving me a lot of confidence. I am sure the UDF will win this by-poll,” he said.
Vijayakumar challenged the UDF to fight the by-poll politically. “Is an election about a death, grief and sentiments or is it politicalIJ The UDF has already conceded defeat by making Karthikeyan’s son the candidate. They will lose it,” he said. However, he admitted that a defeat in Aruvikkara would seriously affect the credibility of the lDF as Opposition.