Kerala - Kochi   

Left pulling out all stops for a win in Mattancherry

Anand Haridas

The constituency is considered a traditional bastion of Indian Union Muslim League

KOCHI: The Left Democratic Front is putting up an all-out battle to make history by winning the Mattancherry Assembly seat, considered an India Union Muslim League bastion.

Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan and Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan are among the Left leaders who had campaigned for the Front in the constituency for the elections on April 29.

But Minister for Industries V.K. Ebrahim Kunju, who is the United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate, is confident of retaining his seat. "We are concentrating the campaign on development works done by the UDF Government during the last five years. We have implemented many pioneering projects, such as Poverty Alleviation Mattancherry. Also, we have solved about 70 per cent of the drinking water shortage and the rest can be solved in another year and a half," Mr. Kunju said during a brief break during house visits.

But the Left Front candidate, M.C. Josephine, and Mathew Paily of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are in no mood to agree to such claims. "We are not concentrating on big projects, but on problems affecting the common man. The highlight of our campaign will be the bad condition of women in the area," Ms. Josephine said. Crisis in fisheries sector, lack of proper planning in improvement of slums and demand for more facilities in Government hospitals are other campaign issues being taken up by Ms. Josephine.

The Left camp says a change in the trend towards its favour is being felt. "The change has come after declaration of support by the PDP [People's Democratic Party] and Jamaat-e-Islami," Ms. Josephine said.

The constituency has some strong pockets of BJP support. "Our poll campaign will be focussed on the drinking water issue and lack of hi-tech hospitals in the area," Mr. Paily said. He complained that west Kochi did not have institutions offering higher and professional education. The BJP camp is confident of increasing its tally this time.

After the formation of the Mattancherry constituency in 1957, the Left camp could register wins only thrice here — K.J. Herschel in 1970 (as Congress-O candidate with a record winning margin of 21,120 votes) and 1977 (as Janata candidate, winning margin 4,195) and M.A. Thomas in 1996 (as Independent, lead being 425 votes).

Mr. Kunju wrested back the seat for the UDF in 2001, with a winning margin of 12,153 votes.

While the Left camp is confident of registering another win, the ruling Front, led by Mr. Kunju, has little doubts about its prospects.

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