The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Elections: a race against time for political parties

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Friday, Mar 04, 2011
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Kerala - Kochi

Elections: a race against time for political parties

K. P. M. Basheer

Ernakulam has 14 Assembly constituencies

The short six-week period for polls has surprised political parties
All parties are facing a shortage of volunteers for local campaign

KOCHI: The Assembly election notification, though not unanticipated, came a little sooner for the political parties and the administration in Ernakulam district and hence they were a bit taken aback when the Election Commission announced the poll schedule on March 1.

Added to this was the relatively short time allowed between the day of notification and the day of polling—just six weeks. This meant not enough time was left for the political parties to put their act together. The complex process of seat allocation within the political fronts, the ticklish issue of selection of candidates, and the elaborate task of electioneering—for all these, the parties have a very short time on their hands. This has landed them in a race against time.

In just two days, the parties have woken up to the reality of the April 13 election. The district leaderships of each of the political parties, within or without the fronts, are now in a hurry to get the election process off the ground. The offices of the parties are buzzing with rounds of discussions and informal talks. Because of the fluid situation in both the UDF and LDF, candidates are not pre-determined.

Volunteer shortage

Running election campaigns is a tough task now for all political parties as the nature and content of campaigns have changed like never before. Shortage of manpower is a critical issue. Volunteers are hard to come by for grassroots-level campaigns such as hour-to-house canvassing. In the past, hundreds of unemployed youths were available in each village to happily shoulder the campaigning responsibilities, particularly for the Left parties.

Now even party cadres expect to be paid for their service or at least their expenses to be taken care of. This puts a heavy financial pressure on parties and candidates.

Campaigns are pretty expensive in the district. And, this time, the Election Commission and Income Tax special teams will be breathing down the necks of candidates to check if they overshoot their funding limits.

Ernakulam, a crucial district for both the UDF and LDF, has 14 Assembly constituencies stretching from the sea to the mountains: Angamaly, Perumbavoor, Aluva, Kalamassery, Thrikkakara, Tripunithura, Ernakulam, Kochi, Paravur, Vypeen, Kunnathunadu, Piravom, Kothamangalam and Muvattupuzha. Of these, Kalamassery and Thrikkakara are newly carved constituencies, while Kochi and Vypeen are former Mattancherry and Njarackal constituencies respectively, with minor additions and deletions. The former constituencies of Palluruthy and Vadakkekara ceased to exist during the restructuring of the constituencies. In terms of geographical area, Kothamangalam is the largest. Kunnathunadu is the only reserved seat in the district.

Across the 14 constituencies, there are 21.72 lakh voters in the district of whom 10.93 lakh are women. About 2,200 electronic voting machines would be deployed for the polling. In the 2006 Assembly election, the LDF had a very impressive tally of 10 out of 14 seats in the district. But the 2009 Lok Sabha election and last year's civic body elections substantially reversed the situation in favour of the UDF.

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