Constituency gets ready for a high-spirited contest
It is 8.30 a.m., and members of a motley crowd at a ‘chayakkada’ (tea shop) at Thavalappara junction in Manjapra panchayat near Angamaly are having piping hot tea with snacks. Not far away, a few women and college-going girls anxiously await a private bus to Angamaly town, outside the bus shelter.
The nearby election booth of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) is being given a facelift, as eager party cadre prepare to welcome their candidate. They are placing flex boards at key points. As the wait continues, discussions veer into the pros and cons of pre-poll surveys and welfare schemes promised by key fronts in their manifestos.
“Our next MLA and probable Minister of the Left government is here,” claims the senior-most member of the assembled workers, marking the arrival of Jose Thettayil, Janata Dal (S) leader and LDF candidate, by around 9.45 a.m. “This was installed during my term [elected in 2006 and 2011],” says Mr. Thettayil pointing to the high mast lamp at the junction.
“The Left government had initiated several welfare measures for workers, especially women,” he tells a gathering of women at a National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme site before proceeding to other places across Manjapra.
Almost 3 km away at Amalapuram in Ayyampuzha panchayat, Congress mandalam committee leader T.P. Varghese turns vocal, as he points to the site of the proposed Gift City project while recalling protests by local residents. “It’s just half-a-kilometre from here. We wanted the government to avoid acquiring populated areas for the project,” he says.
A parody of the hit number Theeyame from Angamaly Diaries is heard from a distance, as Roji M. John, sitting Congress MLA, arrives at the junction amid bursting of crackers. A local leader of the Mahila Congress takes charge of the microphone and reminds voters of the alleged nepotism and protests by youth demanding jobs during the LDF regime.
Mr. John loses no time to run towards a woman standing alone in front of her house and seeks her blessings. “We are behind schedule by an hour, as the previous meetings got stretched owing to the overwhelming response of the people,” he says. There is no high-voltage speech by the candidate, but only a few words requesting the electorate to vote for a government led by the United Democratic Front (UDF).
The blazing sun has not withered the spirit of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) supporters at Elavoor in Parakkadavu panchayat as the clock strikes one. An activist of the Mahila Morcha critiques the successive governments led by the LDF and the UDF. “Is it not time for a change?” she asks a small crowd of women and children, as they get ready to welcome K.V. Sabu, the NDA candidate.
“I knew the people of this area right from the time of peaceful protests against the Left government’s decision to permit women under 50 years to enter Sabarimala. As a lawyer, I had filed bail petitions for the protesters,” he says, as the front campaign managers call for an afternoon break.
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