The Hindu : Kerala News : A battle of stalwarts

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 12, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

A battle of stalwarts

By T. Ramavarman

THRISSUR, APRIL 11.

A.C. Jose

An election mood is yet to set in at the Thrissur Parliament constituency where the sitting MP, A.C. Jose of the Congress, is pitted against another the seasoned campaigner, C. K. Chandrappan of the CPI. The NDA has fielded the BJP district president, P.S. Sreeraman.

The three fronts UDF, LDF and NDA had announced their respective candidates much early in Thrissur and had started their campaign work some time back. But somehow the fronts have not been able to make a visible demonstration of their success in whipping up an election excitement both among their cadres and the public as a whole. One reason for this subdued mood in the election front could be that the fronts are now busy with grass-root level activities. Also, in the Thrissur Parliament seat there is a lack of a specific issue on which the parties and candidates could have stirred up a public debate. It is mainly the State-level and national-level issues that are being discussed in the campaign front and here too the two main rivals - LDF and UDF - have to argue more or less on the same lines upholding the need for secular fabric of the country. The LDF is arguing that the increased Left presence in Parliament alone will ensure the preservation of the secular credence of the country.

The UDF on the other hand is arguing that a secular Government can be formed at the Centre only if the Congress as the main opposition is able to muster up enough number of MPs to convince the President that it can form a Government.

So far the constituency has not given an impression of being loyal to either the LDF or UDF though the presence of large number of Christian votes often created a feeling that the UDF is better placed here because of the traditional association of that community with the front. But it was a CPI stronghold for about 25 years from 1957 till 1984 when the Congress could upset the CPI applecart by fielding a Catholic candidate, P.A. Antony.

The Congress could retain its hold over this constituency in the elections in 1989 and 1994 also by fielding Christian candidates (P.A. Antony and P.C. Chacko). However, the CPI had wrested the constituency back in 1996 when the Congress fielded its strongman K. Karunakaran. V.V. Raghavan of the CPI who won the elections in 1996 could get re-elected in the next elections also when the Congress fielded K. Muraleedharan. It was the defeat of Mr. Karunakaran and his son in the two successive elections in Thrissur that gave rise to the theory that the UDF can win in this constituency only when it fields a Christian candidate.

Anyway the Congress wrested the constituency again in the next elections in 1999 when Mr. Jose was made to contest here after his successful innings at Mukundapuram and Idukki. This reinforced the notion that fielding a Christian candidate will be a safe bet for the UDF in Thrissur, and this is probably one reason that has made the Congress to give another chance here to Mr Jose who is otherwise not known for contesting from the same Lok Sabha constituency twice.

Out of the seven Assembly segments that constitute Thrissur Parliament seat, only Cherpu is with the LDF now and all the other six segments Thrissur, Ollur, Kodakara, Manalur, Nattika, and Guruvayur are with the UDF. According to the UDF poll managers, the developmental activities initiated by Mr. Jose will help him return to Parliament in this elections.

However, the LDF leaders dismiss this argument by saying that the UDF victory in the last Assembly elections was only an ephemeral phenomenon and the leaders of that Front themselves have been `successful' in turning people against them through their severe factional feuds and lack of concern for the problems of the poorer sections of society.

C. K. Chandrappan

They also claim that the Christian community as a whole, and particularly its common-folk is fast shedding their anti-Left attitude because of the strong secular positions of the Left at the national level. The resurfacing of the factional feuds in the Congress with the election of the deputy mayor is being used by the LDF in the campaign. Mr. Jose who is a strong `A' group supporter is facing some resentment from the group itself in the district. There were reports of strain in the relationship between the Church and Mr. Jose on prohibition issue, but it remains to be seen whether this will have any impact on the election front.

Both Mr. Chandrappan and Mr. Jose have the disadvantage that they do not hail from Thrissur. While Mr. Jose is from Ernakulam, Mr. Chandrappan is from Cherthala. In their private campaigns the LDF is alleging that Mr. Jose was not being seen in the constituency much during his last term as MP.

Mr. Chandrappan was elected to the Lok Sabha earlier from Thalassery and Kannur and to the Assembly from Cherthala. He has been a fire-brand Leftist right from his school days and has been the leader of several CPI feeder organisations like the AISF, AIYF, and All India Kisan Sabha.

Mr. Jose who is the first Mayor of Kochi is also a seasoned Parliamentarian and has been a member of the Assembly several times. He was Speaker of the Assembly in 1982 and it was then he had acquired the name of being the `casting vote Speaker' as he had to use his casting vote to salvage the Karunakaran Ministry.

In the last elections, the NDA had allocated the seat to the Samata Party, but this time the BJP has decided to field its own candidate causing much resentment in the alliance.

But the Samata Party nominee, A.S. Radhakrishnan, could bag only 44,354 votes in last elections while the BJP nominee had won 53,386 votes in the elections in 1998. The newly-formed Left Front alliance between the CPI-ML(Red Flag) and the outfit floated by the ousted CPI(M) leader, V.B. Cherian, has fielded the Yuvajana Vedi leader, P.N. Provint, as their candidate.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala