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In Kerala, nominees make final pitch as campaign ends on Sunday
AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi is campaigning in her brother’s second constituency Wayanad in north Kerala on the last day while Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to hold a road show in Sultan Bathery and CM Pinarayi Vijayan will hold a rally in north Kerala.
The month-long high voltage campaigning for the twenty Lok Sabha seats in Kerala will come to an end on Sunday evening. All three major players in the state-- the ruling CPI(M)-led LDF, Congress-controlled UDF and BJP-led NDA-- have prepared themselves to make a last-minute pitch to attract voters.
Electioneering will reach a crescendo by evening as the major players have planned road shows, special rallies and vehicle plots depicting their success stories. While the UDF hopes to sweep the state with the Congress president’s sudden entry in Wayanad, the ruling LDF thinks that it can better its tally with the performance of the Pinarayi Vijayan government and its handling of the August floods. The NDA, riding on the emotional Sabarimala wave, is planning to break the stagnant bipolar polity of the state.
AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi is campaigning in her brother’s second constituency Wayanad in north Kerala on the last day while Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to hold a road show in Sultan Bathery and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will participate in a rally in north Kerala.
Union Minister Smriti Irani, who is opposing the Congress president in Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, was expected to attend the concluding ceremony in Wayanad but dropped her plan at the eleventh hour after she was indisposed, said NDA sources.
BJP president Amit Shah’s road show in Pathanamthitta on Saturday was disrupted due to a heavy downpour. For harried candidates who campaigned in the sweltering sun there was relief during the concluding days as many areas received rainfall.
The state has 2.61 crore voters-- 1,34,66,521 female voters, 1,26,84,839 male voters and 174 transgender voters. There are 227 candidates in the fray for 20 seats. At least half of the seats are witnessing a fierce three-cornered contest. The maximum number of candidates are in Wayanad-- 22. Out of 20 seats, the Congress-led UDF has 12 and CPM-led LDF holds eight seats.
Besides Wayanad, where Rahul Gandhi is locked in a fierce three-cornered contest with NDA’s Thushar Vellapally and CPI’s P P Suneer, the state capital Thiruvananthapuram where author-turned politician Shashi Tharoor is trying for a hattrick (his main opponents are former Mizoram Governor Kummanam Rajasekharan and former minister C Divakaran of CPI) and north Kerala’s Vatakara where Kannur strongman P Jayarajan is taking on former PCC president K Muralidharan are some of the prestigious constituencies. Pathnamthitta where the famous hill temple Sabarimala is situated is also witnessing a huge battle -- BJP’s K Surendran is taking on two-time MP Anto Anotny of Congress and Veena George of the CPI(M).
The stakes are high for all three major players as the state is witnessing a tough three-cornered contest for the first time. Earlier it has always been a bipolar contest between the UDF and LDF but this time the BJP, an also- ran in state politics, powered by the emotional Sabarimala issue is posing a challenge to both.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s sudden entry in Wayanad and the Sabarimala issue have changed the political scenario of the state. Reeling under the impact of Sabarimala, for the CPI(M), the candidature of Rahul Gandhi has come at the worst possible time.
