In Chalakkudy, the lok Sabha constituency in central Kerala, Congress’s national spokesperson PC Chacko, who was chairman of the JPC during the 2G scam, is a political refugee. He reached there as the Congress-led UDF’s candidate after fleeing Thrissur which he represents presently because of factional problems in the party, voters’ ire and the mighty Catholic Church’s intense dislike.
But the very first reaction he got in Chalakkudy should have brought a great relief to him. leaders of the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church welcomed him and announced that they would do everything possible to ensure the victory of Chacko, a son of the Church. Jacobites claim they constitute almost 30 per cent of the voters in Chalakkudy.
“However, you need not consider this as a surprise announcement as far as Chacko, a highly pragmatic politician, is concerned. It goes without saying that he had ensured this support even before he persisted before Sonia Gandhi that he wanted to be shifted from Thrissur to Chalakkudy,” says Varghese John, a prominent member of the Jacobite Church.
Chacko’s chief rival is Innocent, perhaps the most popular comedian of Malayalam cinema, whom the CPI(M) has fielded as an Independent candidate for the Opposition lDF. The top CPI(M) leaders had drawn much flak for this decision from the party itself. The BJP has fielded B Gopalakrishnan as its candidate.
Innocent, who survived a Cancer attack recently, launched his campaign a few days ago with great confidence, relying mainly on his popularity as a popular comedian of the silver screen and as a native of the Thrissur district under which most parts of Chalakkudy came. But that confidence is now said to be on the wane after the entry of Chacko as the UDF candidate.
Chalakkudy, which was Mukundapuram before the delimitation of 2009, has always been a Congress-UDF citadel. In the lok Sabha elections held in the past quarter-century, the left had won the seat only twice — by K Balanandan and lonappan Nambadan —both from the CPI(M), in 1980 and 2004 respectively.
In a sense, Chalakkudy is a cross section of quintessential Kerala as it has the poverty-stricken people living on the coastline in Kodungallur, the traders of Chalakkudy proper, the working class people of Kaipamangalam, the urban elite of Angamaly and Aluva and the settler farmers of Kunnathunad and Perumbavoor.
“Four of these seven Assembly segments are represented by leftist MlAs but that does not change the reality that this lok Sabha seat is a Congress fortress. Also, sitting MP KP Dhanapalan (of the Congress) has done such brilliant works here that the people have added reason to stand by the UDF,” claimed Joseph Chacko, a Congress campaigner in Chalakkudy.
Chacko himself has reasons to feel confident in Chalakkudy. He had won the seat — when it was Mukundapuram — in 1996 by a margin of close to 25,000 votes. “However, many dislike his style of politics, I must admit,” says Joseph. “Chacko is known for his habit of abandoning a seat after winning it. That is how he had left this place once,” he adds.
Innocent and his campaigners, who include a big mass of his fans and student activists, are not worried about claims of the Congress about the upper hand Chacko has got in Chalakkudy.
“It is to be decided by the voters. The 2004 polls had proved that Chalakkudy is nobody’s private property. It will prove that again,” says college student Anita Kumari, an Innocent campaigner.