The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and the Congress scrambled to decipher how the Nair Service Society’s (NSS) canon of political equidistance would bear on the outcome of the byelection in the high-profile Puthuppally Assembly constituency on September 5.
The NSS has often used the equidistance doctrine to navigate the eddies of Kerala politics deftly, even as it has sought to broadcast the image of being above the cut and thrust of domestic politics and firmly on the middle ground.
The NSS’s often inscrutable position has compelled politicians to make a beeline for its headquarters in Perunna, hoping to tap into the community’s formidable social heft during elections.
