Kerala - Others   

The battle is purely a political one

Mohamed Nazeer M.N.

The constituency, a red citadel, has hardly changed its political colour since its formation

P.K. Sreemathi

PAYYANNUR: There are half-a-dozen Assembly constituencies in the district that have hardly changed their political colour ever since their formation. Payyannur is one of them and here, as in the other constituencies, issues always take a back seat as the battle is purely political.

The importance of this red citadel for the CPI(M) is displayed by the fact that the party on most occasions fielded its top leaders in the constituency.

Among those who won the seat in earlier elections include A. V. Kunhambu, N. Subramanya Shenoy, M. V. Raghavan, C. P. Narayanan, Pinarayi Vijayan and P. K. Sreemathi who is now seeking re-election from the constituency.

As always, the CPI(M) candidate and her campaigners here are least concerned with any prospect of an adverse situation here. So strong was this bastion of the CPI(M) that even a small dent in the party's vote share will be seen as an adversity.

Pitted against Ms. Sreemathi, who is member of the CPI(M) Central committee and State secretary of the All India Democratic Women's Association, is Congress candidate K. Surendran, who is the district president of the INTUC.

The well-oiled campaign machinery of the CPI(M) is already in the thick of electioneering without displaying any sign of complacency.

The question is whether Ms. Sreemathi can retain her own margin of victory - 22,738 votes - in 2001. In 2001, the CPI(M) target was to secure 28,078 lead that CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan had in the 1996 election. The party hopes that there will be an increase in the margin this time. In the 2004 Lok Sabha election, the party candidate got a lead of 33,356 votes in the Payyannur segment.

UDF bid

Changing the history of the constituency is the aim of the UDF. UDF campaigners are not ready to say that the CPI(M) is invincible in Payyannur. Their hope is that the total electorate in the constituency this time is lower by nearly 10,000 than that in 2001. This time the constituency has 1,61,862 voters. The UDF argument is that the CPI(M) maintained its electoral supremacy in the constituency through largescale impersonation and bogus voting. Reduced number of voters this time means that many names, including those residing outside, have been deleted from the voters lists. That, the UDF campaigners say, will be advantageous to Mr. Surendran.

Ms. Sreemathi has already attended hundreds of family meetings and street corner meetings in the constituency as part of her campaign. Though issues play little role in deciding electoral fortunes here, she highlights construction of roads and bridges, starting of the Rs.99-lakh development project for the Pariyaram Ayurveda College, town square development at Gandhi Maidan, house boat terminal at Vadikkal and sanction given to the drinking water scheme for the Payyannur municipality as her initiatives.

The UDF counters these claims saying that most of them are the UDF Government's achievements and credit should go to Tourism Minister K. C. Venugopal who hails from here. The Tourism Department has spent Rs.8 crores in the constituency for various tourism-related projects, they say.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded A. K. Rajagopal in the constituency. The party has no substantial vote share here. In 2001, the BJP polled only four per cent votes as against 56.82 per cent by the LDF and 39.18 per cent by the UDF.

The constituency goes to the polls in the third phase of the polls on May 3. The first phase covering six southern districts was held on April 22 and the second phase covering six central and northern district will be held on April 29.

— M.N.

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

Stories in this Section

A replay of the 1987 election
The battle is purely a political one
Constituency with a socialist legacy
When two first-timers try to win over voters
Kerala candidates get Bangalore exam centre

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu