THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Tribal activist and former candidate from the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, Biju Kakkathode, has urged the Election Commission to ensure a fair election process in tribal areas. In his letter to the EC, Biju has asked the panel to deploy adequate forces to prevent political parties from bribing voters.
According to Biju, tribal people are largely unaware of the importance of elections. “Political parties create a festival-like atmosphere and supply liquor and cash to tribal people. On polling day morning, they come on vehicles to take the voters to booths. A sumptuous meal, liquor and cash would be given,” he told TNIE.
Thirty-three-year-old Biju belongs to the Paniya community, the largest tribal community in Wayanad. He is also the general secretary of the Akhilenthya Paniya Maha Sabha.
“I have seen many elections. The approach of political parties towards the tribal population remains the same except that the bribe money went up from Rs 50 to Rs 500 for a voter. Also, the complementary snack has been replaced by chicken biryani and country liquor with Indian Made Foreign Liquor,” he says.
Biju blamed successive governments for doing little to create political and electoral awareness. “Every year, leaflets urging people to vote are supplied in the tribal hamlets a few days ahead of the election. Most of our people, especially elders, cannot read or write,” he says, adding that the tribal department should implement long-term programmes to create electoral awareness.
Not a contestant this time
Biju secured 2,090 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha election when Rahul Gandhi contested from the Wayanad seat for the first time. “Initially, my candidature had the support of eight tribal organisations. But all of them retracted when Rahul Gandhi’s entry was announced. The organisations pressured me to withdraw my candidature. But I didn’t,” he says.
Those who pressured him said Rahul would bring development to the backward district. But Biju says he didn’t believe it and that “time has proved that he was right”.
Biju did not file nomination this time because he “realised Lok Sabha poll was a big game”. “There is no level-playing field for people like me,” he says.