PUTHUPPALLY: At 8.30 am, a few BJP workers led by former Ayarkkunnam grama panchayat member T K Anish are eagerly waiting for the candidate to arrive. NDA candidate G Lijin Lal is due to reach in a few minutes at Kandanchira junction at Ayarkunnam.
Advocate T K Ashok Kumar, who is the in-charge of BJP’s electioneering in the region, has been actively running around coordinating the activities. As they are patiently waiting on the wayside, a car stops and BJP candidate Lijin Lal gets down. The team soon starts house visits scheduled for the day. Thus begins another hectic day for the candidate.
After visiting a couple of houses, Lijin offers darsan at Sree Krishna - Sree Mahadeva temple at Ayarkunnam. Soon Lijin starts meeting people living near the temple.
During his meetings with voters, Lijin makes it a point to highlight the Union government’s developmental initiatives in the state. “Please support me. We need to bring in change this time,” he tells voters.
After having a coffee break at the house of K M Sajeev, of Kuzhimadathil, the candidate and his entourage continued visiting houses. Anish, who was leading the team, focused more on visiting the houses of BJP sympathisers as instructed by the party leadership to meet key voters in the final phase of the campaign.
“We have a strong presence in the area. With the polling date nearing, we are now focusing on ensuring the votes of BJP sympathisers,” said Ashok Kumar, after visiting the house of Vijayakumar, a former worker of RSS and Jana Sangham.
Winding up house visits by 10.15 am, Lijin set for Thottakkad in Puthuppally panchayat to continue house visits and meeting key voters. By noon, Union Minister V Muraleedharan joined the candidate. The candidate, along with the minister, attended a few family meetings organised as part of the final phase of election work.
“We have several booths in this constituency where we got a significant number of votes in previous elections. We are focusing on these centres at this stage. The objective is to ensure that our cadre votes are polled in this election so as to increase our vote share,” said a BJP local leader.
The entire campaign is being directly monitored by the BJP state leadership, which has assigned an in-charge for four booths each. BJP state president K Surendran, state vice president Shobha Surendran and other senior leaders were also in Puthuppally to meet the key voters of the constituency on Saturday. After having lunch at Puthuppally, Lijin started his open vehicle campaign by 3 pm at Chengalam junction in Akalakunnam panchayat. BJP central zone president N Hari inaugurated the campaign.