HARIPAD: "We are waiting for the day when Haripad gets a chief minister," Abdul Khader, who is in his 70s, tells The New Indian Express while waving at the motorcade of Opposition leader and UDF candidate Ramesh Chennithala, which made its way to predominantly Muslim area of Thulamparambu in the Haripad constituency after the rousing reception at the Sree Subramanya Swamy temple.
Over to the Haripad MLA's house. Two undated black-and-white medium-sized photographs adorn the walls across a table of the sitting-cum-office room. In one of them, a young Ramesh Chennithala is seen in the company of Indira Gandhi and K Karunakaran. In the second, which is placed slightly above the first, a jovial Chennithala is seen explaining something to Rajiv Gandhi.
At the UDF office in Haripad, there is a sense of purpose. Party workers are making the final arrangements for Chennithala's schedule for the day. G Mohandas, who was additional personal secretary to Chennithala when he was the home minister, is issuing food and fuel coupons to workers.
At 8.00 am, Chennithala held a presser at the UDF office, situated in Haripad town, about 1.5 km from the MLA's house. He continued his tirade against the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government on the power purchase agreement with the Adani Group. This was the second consecutive day on which he attacked the government over the deal with Adani.
It’s 10.30 am. Two local Congressmen flip through the pages of newspapers as if to kill time. The MLA's house is otherwise empty. Chennithala, the MLA from Haripad, is away in Tiruvalla to campaign for Kunjukoshy Paul of Kerala Congress(Joseph), a UDF ally.
Meanwhile, Chennithala is expected to return from Tiruvalla at 11.30 am for one final lap of Haripad, beginning his campaigning for the day from Haripad Sree Subramanya Swamy temple. He's contesting from Haripad for a fifth time, and this time his supporters expect nothing less than a victory margin of 25,000 votes. In 2016, his margin of victory was 18,621.
Waving at his supporters, Chennithala arrives in an open jeep along with his motorcade around 12:45 pm. He's immediately surrounded by waiting supporters, but the first thing on the agenda is to seek the blessings of Karthikeya, the presiding deity. There's no tiredness or weariness in Chennithala.
Talking to The New Indian Express, in between accepting shawls from supporters and readily posing for selfies, Chennithala says he's confident of the UDF scoring a comfortable victory. He says campaigning by both Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi has lifted the spirits of workers.
"The entire LDF-Pinarayi Vijayan campaign is propped up by a 24-hour PR machinery. This will fall apart, once the election results are out. The people of Kerala desire a change. They have made up their minds," he says.
Chennithala has to attend around 23 more official receptions in Haripad, and this is his final day of campaigning on his home turf. On Sunday, he will be off to Idukki, another key district for the UDF. "Am I talking to the next Chief Minister of Kerala?" I ask. "The high command will decide the chief minister," he says.
The 'High Command will decide' is the official position of any aspiring chief minister in the Congress. But, Chennithala knows that there's another bigger battle he has to win once the UDF secures a majority. But for now, the job at hand is to cross the first hurdle.
The Opposition leader follows a strict regimen, which could explain his youthfulness. He gets up at 5.30 am and goes through newspapers. After a 15-minute yoga session, he is ready for the day's activities. John Thomas, who is handling his affairs in the Haripad constituency, says Chennithala has been a pure
vegetarian. But now, he eats fish on the advice of doctors to strengthen muscles.
For Chennithala, this assembly election is a do-or-die affair. There are just two more days left for polling day. All the hard work and toil he had put in during the last five years as Opposition leader, will be finally tested as the state goes to the polls on Tuesday.
"Why only Nemom, I'm contesting from all the 140 seats," he had said when there was a demand for him to contest from the only seat won by the BJP in the 2016 elections.
The statement simply tells what's at stake for this 65-year-old. The last five years have not been easy for Chennithala, An unfriendly press, an impression carefully created by his detractors that he's someone ever-ready to shift loyalties to Sangh Parivar/BJP, or that he is a weak Opposition leader, who is no
match for Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
But there's no denying the fact that Chennithala has been able to put the LDF government on the defensive on several fronts. After he put out the entire list of over 4 lakh double and bogus voters on the web, the Election Commission on Friday hurriedly put out a set of measures to prevent multiple/bogus voting.
Chennithala holds the record for the youngest minister in the state's history when he was made the rural development minister in the 1986 Karunakaran ministry-- a record which stands even 35 years on.
Since returning to state politics as KPCC president in 2005, it's no secret that Chennithala has been harbouring an ambition to become the chief minister one day. That time is now.