THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Vattiyoorkavu assembly constituency which saw a triangular battle recorded 64.16 % polling percentage. When LDF and NDA candidates, V K Prasanth, sitting MLA, and V V Rajesh allegedly showed their money power during the course of their intense campaigning, UDF candidate Veena S Nair cut a sorry figure. But that had not deterred her to give a strong fight against her opponents.
Right from day one, LDF and NDA candidates have been in a face to face battle. When Veena’s candidature was announced at a later stage after her opponents had covered the first lap of their campaigning, Veena had to put in extra effort. When the by-election was held in Vattiyoorkavu in November 2019, the polling percentage was 62%. During K Muraleedharan’s outing there, he had garnered 69% polling percentage.
“I am confident of creating an upset victory against my rival candidates. I have got the maximum support from women voters in the constituency as they were upset that the LDF candidate had unleashed a personal attack against me which came to my favour,” Veena told TNIE.
But Prasanth exuded confidence of getting a margin of over 20,000 votes in his second outing. This time the number of voters has also gone up by 2.03 lakh voters from the earlier 1.90 lakh in the by-election. However, with the number of polling booths going up due to the pandemic, the voters did not have to wait in queue. “Compared to NDA and UDF candidates, we had used only minimal funds as we met our election funds through local support. It was party workers who contributed to the campaigning where we had come out with mike announcements only towards the fag end of the campaigning,” Prasanth told TNIE.
But Rajesh contradicts Prasanth’s claim as the total votes polled in Vattiyoorkavu is 1.35 lakh votes. Even though the BJP candidate is not making any claims, he too expressed confidence of upsetting the rivals’ hopes.“We had excellent manpower which has been instrumental in raising funds towards meeting the poll expenses. I can vouch that my campaigning did not see lush with funds. I will say how the BJP has won on May 2,” Rajesh told TNIE.