The Hindu : Kerala News : Stakes high for Muraleedharan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 29, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Stakes high for Muraleedharan

By T. Ramavarman

WADAKKANCHERRY, APRIL 28. The byelection to the Assembly from the Wadakkancherry constituency is crucial for both fronts in many respects, especially the UDF candidate and Electricity Minister, K. Muraleedharan. But the basic issues involved in it are getting submerged in the cacophony of charges and counter-charges aired by the rival parties.

Being an Assembly byelection, it might even be considered an evaluation of the performance of the A.K. Antony-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Government. Though Mr. Muraleedharan and the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) acting president, P.P. Thankachan, have no objection in treating the bypoll as a referendum on the performance of the three-year-old UDF Government, the Chief Minister prefers to consider it as a mere bypoll being held along with the general elections.

The campaign managers of the LDF candidate, A.C. Moideen, also are keen to project it as a referendum. According to them, even the elections for the 20 Lok Sabha seats in the State will be a referendum on the performance of the State Government. The BJP candidate, Sobha Surendran, and her supporters also think on similar lines.

There is a feeling in Wadakkancherry that the byelection has been imposed on them just to satisfy the ministerial ambitions of Mr. Muraleedharan. This impression stems from the way he resolved the nine-month-long crisis in the Congress after precipitating it. But Mr. Muraleedharan counters this argument by citing previous instances of both LDF and UDF leaders contesting byelections after becoming Ministers and Chief Minister.

As the son of the senior Congress leader, K. Karunakaran, Mr. Muraleedharan is also facing the charge of trying to impose dynastic rule on a politically conscious State. The fact that his sister, Padmaja Venugopal, is in the fray at the nearby Mukundapuram Lok Sabha seat and that his father (Mr. Karunakaran) has just been elected to the Rajya Sabha is being pointed out by his political detractors in the party. On the other side, the LDF is hurling charges of misuse of official machinery and violation of the model code of conduct on Mr. Muraleedharan. The infighting in the Congress and the `inability' of its Government to initiate major development programmes in the State as well as the constituency are being highlighted by the LDF on the campaign front.

The UDF's campaign against the CPI(M) is focussed on the latter's `anti-development stand and violent politics'. The UDF alleges that the LDF is resorting to violence even during the election campaign. According to Mr. Muraleedharan, the LDF is indulging in `character assassination' against him by levelling `wild charges.'

The LDF counters these allegations by saying that they are only stating `facts about Mr. Muraleedharan'.

The UDF's appeal to `vote for a Minister for the development of Wadakkancherry' has found acceptance among some sections of the voters here. But there are those who feel that the UDF has been neglecting the constituency all these time though the electorate has been returning UDF candidates for more than two decades. They are of the opinion that the presence of a Minister will not make much difference here.

The BJP is facing charges of having entered into an understanding with both the UDF and LDF in Wadakkancherry. The LDF alleges that the BJP is engaged in a two-fold game plan here: on one side it is trying to `split' the anti-Muraleedharan votes and on the other it might well `sell' its votes to him. The UDF, on the other hand, alleges that the LDF and the BJP have reached an understanding to defeat Mr. Muraleedharan. The BJP denies both these allegations. According to the BJP leadership, the primary objective of the party is to defeat Mr. Muraleedharan for having taken an anti-Hindu stand in the Marad issue. They accuse the CPI(M) of having sabotaged their plan to field a common candidate against Mr. Muraleedharan.

The film star Devan is contesting the byelection under the banner of Kerala People's Party. His campaign is for clean politics and for launching a movement for the development of the State.

The prohibitionists have fielded Thomas Kurien, who is campaigning against the liquor policy of the UDF Government.

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