Campaigning in Kerala for the 16th lok Sabha election reached its peak on Wednesday with the Election Commission ending the nominations process and allotting symbols to all aspirants. As time for withdrawal of nominations ended on Wednesday, 269 candidates remained in the fray in the 20 seats in the State. Polling in all the 20 seats will be held on April 10.
Thiruvananthapuram constituency, where a tough triangular battle is on among the Congress-led UDF, CPI(M)-headed lDF and the BJP has the highest number of candidates – 20 – in entire Kerala. Mavelikkara, where Union Minister Kodikkunnil Suresh is fighting to retain the seat, has the lowest number of aspirants – nine – in the State.
Five constituencies in Kerala have 16 or more candidates each. In total, 325 nominations were filed till March 22, the closing date, and as many as 56 aspirants withdrew their papers. On Wednesday, 43 aspirants, including dummy candidates for official candidates of various parties, withdrew nominations.
The Election Commission on Wednesday disappointed the lDF in Kollam constituency, where the front is fighting the State’s most prestigious battle, by allotting the RSP’s official election symbol, Spade and Shovel, to former minister NK Premachandran, the candidate of the Kerala RSP which had left the lDF on March 8 and joined the UDF.
P Rajendran, former MP from Kollam and chief election agent of CPI(M) candidate MA Baby, Politbureau member, had complained to the EC that “Spade and Shovel” was the symbol of the West Bengal RSP and that Premachandran was using it without permission. The commission rejected this argument and allotted the symbol to Premachandran.
The left had suffered another jolt on Tuesday when the Returning Officer in Kottayam where Kerala Congress(M)’s sitting MP Jose K Mani, also son of Finance Minister KM Mani, is the UDF candidate when the Returning Officer rejected its complaint that his nomination was invalid because of discrepancies in it with regard to the man who proposed his name.
The Election Commission completed allotment of symbols to all the candidates on Wednesday. Only ten of the 15 CPI(M) candidates in the State are contesting under its official symbol, Hammer, Sickle and Star, while the five remaining candidates – Independents supported by the left – will be contesting under different symbols allotted by the poll panel.
As per this, film star Innocent, the lDF Independent who is fighting against Congress strongman in Chalakkudi, has been allotted the symbol of Earthen Pitcher while former IAS official Christy Fernandez, another left Independent, who has locked horns with Union Minister KV Thomas in the Ernakulam constituency, has been given Television as his symbol.
In a big relief to former Union minister O Rajagopal, the BJP candidate in Thiruvananthapuram where his mission is to open account for the party in the State, his “other” with the name of T Rajagopal withdrew his nomination in the last minute. The “others” have been known as poll spoilsports and had caused huge upsets in poll results in the past in the State.
As many as 28 “others” are in the fray in various constituencies this time playing spoilsport for serious party candidates. Campaign managers of the two main political fronts accused each other of resorting to the foul game of fielding “others” out of lack of confidence in the winnability of their respective candidates.
With the line-up becoming clear, campaigning by candidates and their parties reached its zenith in the State with show-techniques like poster-publicity and graffiti giving way to aspirants and campaigners devoting more time for meeting as many voters and holding as many corner meetings as possible in their respective constituencies.
“The biggest problem is that only 13 days are effectively available for active campaigning,” complained Prabhakaran Nair, a campaigner for candidate PK Biju of the CPI(M) in the Alathur constituency. “That time is not even sufficient for the candidates to even cover by vehicle once the entire territory of a lok Sabha constituency,” he said.