Political parties in Kerala on Thursday resumed intense campaigning in Chengannur Assembly constituency with the Election Commission announcing the schedule for the bypolls there by which polling will be held on May 28, just three days before the expected date of southwestern monsoon’s touchdown on the State’s coast.
Counting of votes will be held on May 31 and May 10 will be the last day for filing nominations for the by-polls for which the notification will be issued on May 3. Scrutiny of nominations will take place on May 11 and the last date for withdrawal of papers will be May 14. With the announcement of the by-poll schedule, model code of conduct has come into force.
“The delay in the announcement of schedule had caused some confusion but intense campaigning has already resumed. Everything is in place. At least that is how it is with us,” said a poll manager of the CPI(M)-led lDF in the constituency. Top State and Central leaders of the three main fronts are expected to descend on Chengannur in the coming days.
The fronts had started their preparations for the by-poll and announced their candidates several weeks ago. However, the enthusiasm behind the campaigning had come down later with the Election Commission failing to announce the schedule for the by-poll along with that for the Karnataka Assembly election.
The by-election in Chengannur was necessitated by the death of CPI(M)’s sitting MlA KK Ramachandran Nair on January 14. The fervor shown so far in electioneering by the three fronts – CPI(M)-led lDF, Congress-headed UDF and the BJP-led NDA – proves that Chengannur is witnessing an extremely tight triangular contest.
The outcome of the by-poll is unlikely to have any serious impact on the State administration as the ruling lDF already has a huge majority in the Assembly but it has immense significance politically as it is being seen as a referendum on the performance of the lDF Government whose popularity has allegedly suffered a big jolt of late.
It is also important for the BJP, which had increased its vote-share in the constituency to 42,682 in the 2016 election from a mere 6,062 in 2011, as the other two fronts are focusing their campaigns on the alleged failures of the Narendra Modi Government including demonetization, GST pitfalls, Dalit issues, Kathua gangrape-murder, NPA crisis, bank loan frauds, etc.
The ruling lDF has fielded CPI(M)’s Alappuzha district secretary Saji Cherian as its candidate for the by-poll while the UDF’s nominee is State Congress secretary D Vijayakumar, a native leader. Former State president PS Sreedharan Pillai, who had fought for the NDA there in 2016, is the BJP’s candidate.
leaders of all the three fronts expressed relief that the confusion and uncertainty about the by-poll date, which had forced them to put a brake on fast-track campaigning, had now ended. “I am very happy that the by-election is going to be held soon. We are going to win this by-poll,” said UDF candidate Vijayakumar.
A total of 1,88,702 voters are to exercise their franchise in the by-poll while there were 1,95,483 voters in the constituency in the 2016 election. There are 164 polling booths in the constituency and the preliminary examination of the electronic voting machines to be used in the polling has already been completed.