Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

On the coast, a surging battle

Thiruvananthapuram: The coastal wards are witnessing a stiff contest between the two major political coalitions in the elections to the City Corporation Council.

In the coastal belt stretching from Pallithura to Mulloor, the number of wards has gone up from 12 to 16 following the merger of the Vizhinjam panchayat with the Corporation and the delimitation of wards.

Five of these wards, namely Beemapally, Poonthura, Poundukadavu, Mulloor and Vizhinjam, are reserved for women, while the Shanghumugham ward is reserved for women from the Scheduled Caste community.

Of the four wards from the Vizhinjam panchayat, Mulloor, Vizhinjam and Harbour are witnessing a straight fight between the Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M). In the Kottapuram ward, the CPI is taking on the Congress.

The coastal belt is a crucial constituency for the Indian Union Muslim League, which is seeking to improve its tally from the two seats it held in the previous Corporation Council. Four of the six candidates fielded by the party for the civic polls are contesting from the coastal wards.

Beemapally Rashid, party district secretary, is contesting the Beemapally East ward, which he held last time.

He is pitted against Mohammed Iqbal of the CPI(M).

Muslim League district vice president K.M.A. Khader is trying to wrest the Puthenpally ward where S. Salim of the CPI(M) is seeking re-election. In the Vallakadavu constituency, League candidate M.A. Rahim is locked in a fight with Shajitha Nasar of the CPI(M) who is trying to retain her seat.

The League is backing Patricia Joseph, an Independent candidate backed by the United Democratic Front (UDF), in the Beemapally ward, a seat it held in the previous council, where the Left Democratic Front (LDF) has fielded Rajina of the Kerala Congress (P.C. Thomas faction).

The presence of League State president Panakkad Syed Hyderali Shihab Thangal in the coastal belt during the campaign has galvanised the party ranks.

LDF bastion

In the fishermen-dominated Poonthura ward, an LDF bastion for the past 20 years, UDF candidate Mary Jipsi of the Kerala Congress(M) is challenging LDF nominee J. Sherly of the CPI(M).

In the previous elections, the constituency witnessed a tough electoral battle between the Congress and the Kerala Congress(J). The UDF and the LDF camps are pulling out all the stops to woo the electorate.

The delimitation has shuffled the electorate between several coastal wards. The Kannanthura ward has ceased to exist.

The UDF leaders say the fragmentation of wards and the reservation pattern has turned the electoral fortunes in their favour in the coastal belt. The LDF leadership, however, believes that the development works taken up by the Corporation in the coastal wards will stand it in good stead.

While the Congress is fighting the CPI(M) in Poundukadavu, Pallithura, Vettukad, Mulloor, Vizhinjam and Harbour wards, it is taking on the Nationalist Congress Party in the Valiathura constituency, considered a UDF bastion. The presence of the former councillor and Congress leader Xavier Lopez in the fray as a rebel candidate in the Valiathura ward is posing a headache for the UDF camp.

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