In election season, old loyalties die hard
IDUKKI: Despite the BJP’s efforts to prop her up a ‘star’ campaigner, 87-year-old Mariyakutty of Adimaly didn’t flinch a second to extend her support for Idukki UDF candidate Dean Kuriakose.
Mariyakutty was seen as the face of protest against the Pinarayi government, after the widow staged a ‘begging strike’ for disbursal of social security pensions last year.
Mariyakutty revealed that she had received calls from BJP state leaders to participate in the party’s poll campaigning. “But, I have been a Congress supporter ever since I settled in Adimaly,” she said.
Following the Congress, the BJP’s Suresh Gopi and Krishna Kumar offered her financial help after learning about the incident. She later stunned many as she shared a seat with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a BJP event in Thrissur.
“Attending a function doesn’t mean that I am a BJP supporter,” she told TNIE. “I don’t have any issues with the BJP. I only resent the Pinarayi-led LDF government, which has made the lives of many, including mine, miserable. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has been arrested. Pinarayi, more crooked than Kejriwal, has managed to escape so far.”
Pointing fingers at the rape cases involving CPM workers, she said, “Even children are not safe inside their homes,” said Mariyakutty, who had participated in a protest led by Dean in connection with the Vandiperiyar rape and murder case.
Mariyakutty said she may attend BJP events, if invited, in the future. “But my vote will always be for the Congress. I have also asked my daughters to vote for the party.”
Notably, the Congress state leadership is building a house for Mariyakutty, at an estimated cost of Rs 10 lakh, on a 3-cent plot in Adimaly. She currently stays with her younger daughter in a shed near the under-construction house.