A highly charged final phase of campaigning for the Puthuppally byelection, scheduled for September 5, culminated on Sunday evening with the major contenders campaigning full blast.
With just one day left for polling, the campaigning will go on silent mode on Monday with the candidates embarking on a last-minute bid for voters’ support. Sunday saw the parties taking out roadshows and rallies to Pampady. The celebrations reached a crescendo when the candidates of major coalitions arrived at the spot to rousing receptions.
While National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate G. Lijin Lal, Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate Jaick C. Thomas, and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Luke Thomas joined the show of strength at Pampady, United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate Chandy Oommen continued with canvassing at Manarcaud. At the same time, Uma Thomas, MLA; T. Siddique; and Rahul Mankoottam were present at Pampady to lead the UDF’s final show.
As people kept pouring in, the police had a tough time regulating the crowd. The high-decibel campaign drew to a close by 6 p.m. and the crowd soon dispersed.
Star campaigners
Unusual to its history, every coalition in the fray at Puthuppally this time had its tallest leaders dropping in and raising the poll heat. However, much of the hard grind for seats was left in the hands of the grassroots workers.
While the LDF focussed primarily on the development imbalances in the Assembly segment represented by Mr. Chandy for 53 years, the UDF sought to counter it by highlighting the scams that have engulfed the State government. The NDA, meanwhile, set its campaign primarily on the welfare and development programmes implemented by the Union government.
While the UDF had been charged up right from the beginning and hit the ground running the moment the election date was announced, the LDF regards this election as the first real chance to breach the UDF bastion. The NDA, meanwhile, looks to use the perceived rise in its acceptance among various communities to good effect.
Personal attacks
As the parties stepped up the political heat, the debates also gave way to malicious personal attacks, primarily on the social media. The war of words continued to the final day of campaigning as a voice clip casting aspersions on Mr. Oommen, the UDF candidate, did rounds in the social media.
Alongside the political factors, the stance of the dominant Christian factions, which together constitute about 45% of the electorate here, too will have a considerable impact on the final outcome.
