Sun Oct 20 15:20:29 UTC 2024: Updated – October 20, 2024 09:03 pm IST – PALAKKADThe Palakkad Assembly constituency has come in sharp focus by promising a fierce triangular contest among the United Democratic Front (UDF), the Left Democratic Front (LDF), and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It will be the keenest and fiercest battle among the bypolls being held in the Palakkad and Chelakkara Assembly constituencies and the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency on November 13.
Amidst a barrage of allegations and accusations by a handful of young Congress leaders opposing Shafi Parambil, MP, who had won from Palakkad three times back to back, the UDF has brought in Youth Congress State president Rahul Mamkootathil to retain the seat vacated by Mr. Parambil.Mr. Mamkootathil, despite his popularity as a young Congress activist with potential to garner the secular votes of Palakkad, has to circumvent the challenge being posed by LDF’s P. Sarin and BJP’s C. Krishnakumar. And the challenge is huge, but not insuperable.
Mr. Parambil is spearheading Mr. Mamkootathil’s campaign in Palakkad. Winning this election is a matter of personal and political pride for Mr. Parambil much more than it is for the latter or anyone else in the Congress.Since 2016, the BJP has been the runner-up in Palakkad. When BJP’s firebrand Sobha Surendran had garnered 29.08% votes in 2016, party’s high-profile technocrat E. Sreedharan enhanced the BJP vote share to 35.34% in 2021. It was by 3,859 votes that Mr. Sreedharan lost to Mr. Parambil in a keenly fought contest last time. The BJP is banking heavily on that close margin. The BJP has fielded its State general secretary C. Krishnakumar. He visited Mr. Sreedharan at his house at Ponnani on Sunday and said that he would be implementing the “Metro Man’s comprehensive development project” in Palakkad.
The question remains whether he will make the same impact as that made by Mr. Sreedharan among the voters of Palakkad, especially as there are sections within the BJP lobbying against Mr. Krishnakumar. In the Lok Sabha elections held in April this year, Mr. Krishnakumar had failed to make any noteworthy impact in spite of having polled 24.31% votes, way behind V.K. Sreekandan’s (UDF) 40.66% and A. Vijayaraghavan’s (LDF) 33.39%.
What makes the triangular fight all the more exciting is the emergence of P. Sarin as an independent LDF candidate. Dr. Sarin left the Congress and joined the LDF ranks apparently after being denied a seat by the UDF. Dr. Sarin says he will make use of his experience as a former State head of the Congress’s digital media cell to reach out to the voters this election.The LDF camp is exuberant. A roadshow taken out by the LDF on Saturday turned out to be a show of strength by the LDF, particularly the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] cadres. Dr. Sarin is riding on that excitement. The CPI(M) leadership is excited and hopeful that Dr. Sarin can pull off a victory. But it needs to be seen whether the excitement and jubilation could be converted into votes in favour of a man who switched sides overnight.
Meanwhile, the UDF is in parley with P.V. Anvar, the dissident LDF MLA from Nilambur who formed a group named Democratic Movement of Kerala (DMK). Mr. Anvar already indicated that he was willing to support the INDIA bloc led by the Congress.
Published – October 20, 2024 08:50 pm IST
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