Even before the indelible ink marking of 68.69 per cent voters of T’Puram Lok Sabha constituency, who had already decided the winner, dries, all three political camps - UDF, LDF and BJP - are predicting that their respective candidates would sail through with a clear mandate.
When the UDF camp is predicting that their candidate Shashi Tharoor would repeat a 2009 when election results are out on May 16, it bases its prediction on the belief that the young voters would stand by Tharoor this time. Also, they calculate that the ‘malicious campaign’ unleashed by both the main opponent parties would boomerang on them. ‘’Tharoor will repeat the election result of 2009. The good development work he carried out for the constituency will be his strength. Also, the cast and religious lines toed by both the LDF and the BJP has not worked with the voters. The high turnout in various segments will ensure Tharoor’s victory,’’ said Thampanoor Ravi, who was the UDF election committee chairman.
But the LDF also points to the high turnout in Parassala (73.11 pc), Kovalam (71.07 pc) and Neyyattinkara (72.39 pc) for making the prediction that their candidate would register victory this time.
Though LDF candidate Bennet Abraham is not ready to speak anything about the consolidation of Nadar votes, he attributed his winning chance to the well organised work by both the CPI and the CPM. ‘’The LDF worked as a team. In the past also, when Parassala, Kovalam and Neyyattinkara registered good voting percentage, the constituency elected leaders such as P K Vasudevan Nair and Pannian Raveendran. These are LDF strongholds and the combined team work of the CPI and the CPM will help me win the people’s mandate,’’ said Bennet Abraham. For the BJP, T’Puram as said by its party president V Muraleedharan just hours after the polling ended, was a constituency they were anticipating for the ‘Lotus’ to bloom in Kerala for the first time. “Throughout my campaign, I witnessed tremendous goodwill from the people in all segments I toured, particularly from women voters. One factor that many failed to notice was the good organised work done by the Sangh Parivar which it carried out systematically. Also, the hopes of other parties of using the caste card to win people’s mandate has not worked at all,’’ said BJP candidate O Rajagopal. “One of the main campaigns against me was that I was old. But one woman from Nadar caste told me that when a party asked her to vote for Nadar candidate, she told them that she would vote for ‘’Appooppan’’ (grandfather),’’ said the octogenarian, who is confident enough to predict even his majority in a day’s time.