A shadow over contesting election of a few campaigners

It is not the candidates in the fray, but one missing that roams the electoral landscape extensively in the coastal region of Wippe.

Wipen s. A two-time MLA from Sarma had transformed the constituency into a leftist stronghold, while in the second contest, a majority of his nearly 20,000 votes were the best for an LDF candidate in the district.

Sarma’s absence is a big loss for the LDF as it is an opportunity for the UDF, although campaign managers on both fronts will not accept it. Mr. Sarma has the ability to draw votes, cutting caste and communal equations while remaining in his solid vote bank of fishing community banking on his goodwill as a former fisheries minister.

It will be easy to transfer those votes to its candidate KN Unnikrishnan, who is asked for the LDF, and this gives the UDF camp hope from the prospect of its candidate Deepak Joy. BJP’s KS Shiju and Twenty20 candidate Naukri Chakrakala completed the electoral landscape.

All four are debutants, accepting Mr Joy’s single term as a councilor of the Kochi Corporation in the previous UDF-led council. Both the LDF and UDF candidates belong to the Ezhava community nor hold an edge in that account, while the BJP candidates can play to their advantage in some pockets of the fishing community in the backdrop of the Dhivar community. Except Mr. Shaiju, none are from the constituency.

The resentment within the Congress over seat allocation meant that the UDF announced its candidate a fortnight after the LDF announcement. INTUC leader KP Haridas, with solid support from the trade union, was one of the candidates, and the Congress, in an effort to prevent a rebellion, made him the acting chairman of the District Congress Committee (DCC).

The UDF camp claimed that the controversies were behind it and now there was a united force behind the young candidate who is also the National Coordinator of the Youth Congress. The proposed visit to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s constituency, tentatively scheduled for next week, has boosted the sentiment of UDF campaign managers.

According to electoral observers, unlike its prominence in Kunnathunadu, where the Twenty20 is a minor player in the coastal region.

Shortage of drinking water, entry of private buses into the city, filling of homes during high tide and demand for coastal highway are among the main campaign issues in the constituency.

Of the eight panchayats constituting the constituency, the UDF won the Muluvakkad, Advanakkad, Neemarambalam and Elamkunnapuzha panchayats in the local body elections, while the LDF won the Kadamakkudi, Kuzhupili, Najarakkal and Pallipuram panchayats.