The Hindu : Kerala News : A photo finish on the cards

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 06, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

A photo finish on the cards

By G. Prabhakaran

PALAKKAD, MAY 5. The battle of ballot in the Ottappalam Lok Sabha constituency, reserved for the Scheduled Castes, is likely to see a photo finish between two youth leaders — the outgoing MP, S. Ajayakumar of the CPI(M)-led LDF, and the new entrant, K.A. Thulasi of the Congress-led UDF.

The constituency, spread over Palakkad and Thrissur districts, was represented in the Lok Sabha by the former President, K.R. Narayanan, three times from 1984 to 1993. But once the Congress leader quit electoral politics to become the Vice-President of the country, the constituency has been a thorn in the Congress flesh. This time, the party is pulling out all stops to recapture the seat by fielding a young women hailing from Chelakkara.

By fielding a woman, the Congress is also eying the women voters, who outnumber men here. The party presents Ms. Thulasi as a representative of the have-nots of society to match the CPI(M)'s projection of Mr. Ajayakumar as one belonging to the proletarian class.

The BJP candidate, P.K. Velayudhan, is active in the party's pockets of influence and the party is likely to improve its last time figure of 70,851 votes.

In the 1996 elections, Mr. Ajayakumar won the seat for the first time defeating K.K. Vijayalakshmi of the Congress with a margin of 23,000 votes. In the next elections in 1998, his margin came down to 19,725 votes and in the last election it further declined to 13,715. This statistics has boosted the morale of the UDF campaign managers.

Of the seven Assembly segments that constitute the Lok Sabha constituency, Thrithala, Ottappalam, Kuzhalmannam and Chelakkara are held by the LDF and Pattambi, Kunnamkulam and Wadakkancherry by the UDF.

Ms. Thulasi lost the last Assembly elections in Chelakkara to the CPI(M) leader, K. Radhakrishnan, by a small margin.

The UDF campaign managers are of the view that Ms. Thulasi will get more votes in her home constituency. Also, they hope to increase the UDF lead in Wadakkancherry and Kunnamkulam. Ms. Thulasi hopes to cash in on any swing in favour of the Electricity Minister, K. Muraleedharan, in the Wadakkancherry Assembly byelection.

By polling more votes in these three Assembly segments, the UDF hopes to wipe out the lead the LDF used to get in Ottappalam and Kuzhalmannam. In the last Assembly elections, the LDF candidates had a lead of 17,850 votes in Ottappalam and 4,031 votes in Kuzhalmannam.

Both the candidates are pinning their hopes on the Muslim and Christian minorities who constitute 40 per cent of the electorate here. The LDF campaign managers feel that the minorities will vote for their candidate in view of their consistent stand on the protection of minority rights. Since the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, a good chunk of the Muslim votes have been cast in favour of the LDF, they point out.

But the UDF campaign managers say that since the minorities wanted to stop the BJP from coming to power at the Centre this time, there would be swing in minority votes in favour of the Congress throughout the country. This would be reflected in Ottappalam as well.

But the LDF is making all efforts to keep the minority votes intact.

But the issues affecting the people, like the severe drought condition and the resultant acute water shortage in many parts of the constituency and the drying up of the Bharathapuzha, are likely to go against the UDF, which is ruling the State. The crisis in the agriculture sector following the destruction of crops in the severe drought and the failure of the State Government to provide adequate relief to the farmers may work against the UDF.

The campaign reached a high pitch last week when State leaders of the UDF such as K. Karunakaran and A.K. Antony toured the constituency. The LDF, on its part, had roped in the services of three CPI(M) politburo members here on Sunday, V.S. Achuthanandan, Pinarayi Vijayan and Sitaram Yechury. The CPI general secretary, A.B. Bardhan, also addressed a meeting in Kuzhalmannam on Sunday.

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