Cashing in on the uncertainty in the Congress, whose candidate selection is stuck on disputes over whether graft-accused leaders should be fielded as candidates, the CPI(M)-led lDF and the BJP-led NDA have stepped up their campaigns for the crucial May 16 Assembly election in Kerala.
Most of the candidates of the left whose names were announced on Wednesday started their campaigns on Thursday with visits to their respective constituencies. Poll managers of the left opined that the confusion in the Congress-led UDF had given them an opportunity to attract the attention of the entire electorate to their candidates.
“But we are not counting on that. The UDF may come up with its candidates’ list in three or four days. But the confusion in their camp is expressive of the situation they are in: The Congress is a divided house. And it will remain divided because the issue behind it is corruption. It has really given us an edge,” said a close associate of M Swaraj, the CPI(M) candidate in Thripunithura.
Swaraj, State secretary of the DYFI, started his campaign on Thursday with a visit to his constituency where lDF workers gave him a warm reception. He has been entrusted with the hard task of snatching the Thripunithura seat from the Congress whose K Babu, bribery-accused Excise Minister, has been representing it since 1991.
VS Sunil Kumar, the CPI’s energetic MlA from Kaipamangalam, started his campaign in Thrissur, the constituency assigned to him in this election, on Thursday with a visit to the city. The Thrissur Assembly segment does not have a history of supporting the left but Sunil Kumar’s mission this time is to capture it through hard work.
“It is a hard task but it is not impossible. This is a political battle and the issues relevant to entire Kerala are relevant to Thrissur as well. I am here for a big battle to win this seat for the left and I am confident about it. I am quite certain that the people will stand by the left,” Sunil Kumar said on his maiden visit to the constituency as candidate.
The CPI(M)’s candidates in Kannur district kick-started their campaigns on Thursday by visiting the party’s mighty district secretary, P Jayarajan, who is currently in court-ordered exile. The visits proved that though in exile in Kozhikode district, Jayarajan was still the ultimate boss of the Kannur CPI(M).
Jayarajan moved into the house of his sister, former MP P Sathidevi at Vadakara in Kozhikode district, after a court in Thalassery, Kannur on March 23 made it a vital condition that he should not enter Kannur district for two months while granting him bail in the case pertaining to the brutal murder of RSS leader Manoj of Elanthodath in September, 2014.
Those who sought Jayarajan’s blessings on Thursday included CPI(M)’s central committee member KK Shylaja who is contesting from Koothuparambu, young leader AN Shamseer who is the party candidate in Thalassery and media personality MV Nikesh Kumar, Independent candidate fielded by the party in Azheecode.
The BJP has intensified its campaign across Kerala, especially in constituencies where its star candidates are contesting. Reports from Thiruvananthapuram constituency, where former Indian cricketer S Sreesanth is the party candidate, spoke of people turning up in large numbers at the venues of his visit.
State BJP general secretary MT Ramesh, whose election campaign in Aranmula constituency was launched by cine actor Suresh Gopi the other day, stepped up his campaign on Thursday with the determination to cash in on the uncertainty in the Congress and the hiccups within the CPI(M) against the fielding of media personality Veena George as party candidate.