As campaigning for Saturday’s Assembly by-election in Aruvikkara constituency in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram district has come to a close, the main players in the game — Congress-led UDF, CPI(M)-headed lDF and BJP — are still uncertain about the response of the electorate but they agree that this is the mother of all bypolls the State has seen and that it is equally crucial for all of them.
The UDF claims that the bypoll, considered as the semifinals for the 2016 Assembly election, will endorse the development activities undertaken in the four years of its rule while the lDF says the bypoll will mark the beginning of end of “corruption-ridden” UDF. The BJP airs confidence that it will open “account” in the State with this by-election.
The campaigning for the by-poll came to a close on Thursday evening after 20 days of hectic political activity in all the eight panchayats that constituted the Aruvikkara (formerly Aryanad) constituency, with top leaders of all political parties and their feeder outfits sweating it out even amidst the intense showers of the monsoon season.
“I have voted in all elections since 1977 but I have never seen such intense fervour and urgency in electioneering before,” said a 64-year-old shopkeeper in Aryanad junction, the main square in the constituency. The by-poll in Aruvikkara was necessitated by the death of Speaker G Karthikeyan, who had been representing the Assembly constituency since 1991, in March.
The UDF fielded as its candidate Karthikeyan’s son KS Sabarinathan (Congress) with the explicit aim of cashing in on the possible sympathy factor. The lDF candidate is CPI(M)’s M Vijayakumar, former Speaker and former Minister, while the BJP has fielded senior leader and former Union Minister O Rajagopal. A total of 16 candidates are in the fray in Aruvikkara.
The last four days of electioneering saw leaders of all parties and their feeder outfits converging on the otherwise sleepy villages in Aruvikkara constituency, speaking at as many venues as they could. Film stars — from the State as well as outside — crisscrossing the constituency with portable mikes in their hands were the added attraction in the final phase of campaigning.