THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: At Chenavila near Pothencode, in the Nedumangad constituency, a small group of Communist party workers waited anxiously for LDF candidate G R Anil’s campaign vehicle to turn up. When it did, Anil was already an hour behind schedule.
He made a speech from the vehicle and as the vehicle was about to take a U-turn to proceed to the next point, he alighted and went to a nearby house. A few women and children were standing outside listening to the high-decibel announcement from the vehicle. Anil went up to them with folded hands and patted the children on their heads.
A party worker, who was coordinating the campaign, was visibly upset at the act that was out of script.
“We are running out of time. Let’s move,” he chided the candidate mildly. “Relax. We are fine,” Anil responded with a smile, and an air of surety about what he was doing.
In a constituency where the winning margin was less than 1,000 votes in three of the past six elections, Anil’s gesture does carry weight. In 1991, Congress’ Palode Ravi wrested the seat from the CPI with a slender margin of 939 votes. In 2001, CPI’s Mankode Radhakrishnan walked a tightrope pipping Palode by 156 votes. Mankode did an encore defeating Palode for the second time by a wafer thin lead of 85 votes in 2006. Where the margins are that fine, each vote counts.
As expected, Anil’s campaign hinged on the welfare measures the Pinarayi Vijayan-led government had undertaken. For him, to continue the good work of the government, the LDF should return to power. “The government was with the people through thick and thin, during the grim period when two floods and Covid struck,” he said.
Anil pointed out the LDF government had provided free treatment and higher education opportunities, which would earn them votes.“People have been receptive to our developmental activities. They know what we have been doing and the allegations raised against the government recently are mere nonsense,” he said.
The UDF, meanwhile, is banking on Congress’ P S Prasanth to retrieve the seat. The 43-year-old, a former Youth Congress district president, has been canvassing votes claiming that C Divakaran -- the incumbent MLA -- did not live up to the expectations of voters. His campaign harped on infrastructure inadequacies and the need for a UDF legislator to carry forward Palode Ravi’s development work. “The constituency has been plagued by poor infrastructure. The MLA has failed to bring in development. He couldn’t do a thing and whatever we see here today was all done by Palode,” Prasanth said.
He leaned on his music skills too whenever he came across a sizeable gathering. Like Anil, Prasanth too knows the battle would go right down to the wire. But what makes the fight entertaining is the emergence of the BJP as a force to reckon with. In 2011, they polled just about 6,000 votes. By 2016, the figure touched 35,000 -- a huge increase of around 17 per cent. By fielding a senior leader in J R Padmakumar, the BJP has made its intentions quite clear.
“The constituency has gone to the dogs under the rule of the two fronts,” he said while on a house visit at Mancha near Nedumangadu. Padmakumar’s campaigns tried to impress people about the need for a political alternative. “Though it lies next to the capital city, the segment has remained under-developed. The agricultural and tourism potential has been overlooked,” he said.
The BJP leader claimed the party has more than 35,000 base votes. “If we add to our base vote, then we can win the seat,” he said. Padmakumar felt the two rival candidates were not as familiar with the voters as he was and that could play out to his advantage. “The two candidates... people are not aware of them. Especially the CPI’s. We have a chance,” he signed off.