With just 10 days left for Lok Sabha polling day on April 26, opposing fronts in Kerala have drastically sharpened their attacks on each other.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi set the ball rolling on Monday by using the bully pulpit of his high office to observe, without naming any person or dwelling on details, that the “Chief Minister and his daughter” were subjects of a Central investigation.
He also tied the CPI(M) leadership in Thrissur to the Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank scam and promised “wrongdoers” legal retribution and “panicked depositors” the return of their “looted” savings.
Political point scoring, often bordering on the personal appeared to set the tone and tenor of campaigning as it meandered to a close on April 24.
The Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) fast-unfolding probe into the transactions between a Kochi-based mining firm and an IT consultancy owned by Mr Vijayan’s daughter and the comings and goings of CPI(M) leaders outside the agency’s office in Kochi imbued an ominous character to the campaign phase, given Mr. Modi’s harsh spotlighting of the cases during his rallies in the State.
The Lok Sabha election campaign appeared to take on an aggressive and bruising character.
For one, K.K. Shailaja, CPI(M) candidate from Vadakkara, accused her rival and Congress leader Shafi Parambil, of prosecuting a slanderous campaign against her on social media. She also petitioned the police and the District Electoral Officer.
The battle at the hustings also moved into the realm of the judiciary in Vadakara and Attingal constituencies. Mr. Parambil petitioned the High Court for paramilitary cover for polling stations in Vadakkara, given the alleged CPI(M) involvement in the Panoor crude bomb blast.
Mr. Parambil also sought video recording of the polling process in the constituency to prevent the facilitation of bogus voting by “pro-CPI(M)“ booth officers. The Congress campaign team in Attingal approached the High Court alleging fraud in the voters’ list.
Star-studded rallies and aggressive “meet-fire-with-fire tactics” marked the day. Rahul Gandhi held a roadshow in Kozhikode, and the CPI(M) State secretary campaigned in Kannur.
Far away from the heat and dust of the campaign, largely unnoticed squads of political workers took to neighbourhoods and knocked on doors to argue their respective cases for a Lok Sabha vote in 2024.
