Even as the Election Commission of India is yet to announce the dates for the next Lok Sabha elections, the political heat in Pathanamthitta is soaring and looks set to match the summer heat across its hinterlands.
As nothing could be taken for granted in a battle of high stakes, the leading coalitions have kick-started the preparatory works well in advance. For the United Democratic Front (UDF), the sitting MP, Anto Antony, is awaiting a nod from the All India Congress Committee (AICC).
“Though Anto Antony was initially rumoured to be shifting elsewhere, a decision by the UDF to allot the Kottayam seat to the Kerala Congress has brought things back to square one,” said a senior Congress leader.
The Left Democratic Front (LDF), on the other hand, is most likely to field the CPI(M) central committee member T.M. Thomas Isaac. While the CPI(M) district committee and the district secretariat have given in-principle approvals to his nomination, the proposal is awaiting nod from the State committee and the State secretariat.
While the final announcements are awaited, both Mr. Antony and Dr. Isaac have been active in the political sphere of Pathanamthitta for some time now. The coalitions that they represent, meanwhile, have been busy engaging with different segments of society, including various church factions, farmers, and NRIs, among others.
The UDF, led by the Congress, which had long held an upper hand in the region, had witnessed a sharp erosion in its support base in the last decade. But riding high on the Sabarimala protests in 2018, the coalition regained some of its lost ground and retained the parliamentary seat last time.
The LDF, however, remained undaunted in its mission to expand and wrested all seven Assembly segments in the Assembly elections two years later. Notably, the process also helped the Left combine buck the trend of the leading coalitions taking turns to win the majority in the district during the elections over the years.
A defining trend amidst this intense duel, however, was a distinctive rise of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which considerably improved its vote share here last time. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads the alliance, is yet to decide on its candidate and is considering a few names, including veteran politician P.C. George, who recently joined the BJP, and his son Shaun George, besides a State committee leader.
