With just two weeks remaining for the polling day, May 16, and the battle lines becoming clear after the time for withdrawing nominations coming to a close on Monday evening, the poll war in the State has entered a crucial phase. A total of 1,203 candidates are in the fray this time while the number in the 2011 election was 971.
When the time for withdrawing nominations ended, it became obvious that the Congress-led UDF was set to face rebel trouble in nine key constituencies including Chengannur where sitting MlA PC Vishnunath, a staunch loyalist of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, is the official UDF candidate.
The other constituencies where the UDF is facing rebel trouble included Azheecode, Peravoor, Irikkoor, Kannur and Kochi. “They (rebels) are not going to cause much of a problem to the official candidates in more than two seats. But I hope all of them will understand the situation and fall passive in campaigning in the coming days,” said a top UDF leader.
One of the two seats the UDF leader was referring to was Chengannur where three-time Congress MlA and a leader with strong roots in the locality, Sobhana George, is the rebel candidate. Congress sources secretly admitted that “all kinds of strategies” were used to force Sobhana to withdraw but she did not relent.
“(Congress candidate) Vishnunath is already facing a tough time in Chengannur due to the presence of a strong BJP candidate, PS Sreedharan Pillai. In that situation, each vote Sobhana, a very influential among the Christian community there, is likely to bag will be crucial for him,” admitted Narayanan Nair, a local Congress worker in Chengannur.
The formal poll process in the State had begun on April 22, the day filing of nominations had started. The time for nominations ended on April 29 and the scrutiny of papers had taken place on April 30. A total of 1,647 aspirants had filed nominations for the 140 Assembly seats in the State.
At the same time, the political parties’ promise to avoid namesakes, aspirants having names similar to candidates of political parties, proved hollow on Monday as namesakes in their dozens remained in the list of candidates across the State even after the time for withdrawing nominations closed.
Meanwhile, Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi who held discussions with the political parties, polling and police officials and bureaucrats in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday, said Central forces would be deployed in all sensitive booths in the State during polling. There were 200 sensitive booths in the State he said.