World | India
Kunhalikutty describes battle with media
Former Industries Minister and present IT czar in the incumbent Chandy government, Kunhalikutty, is reaching out to small groups of women, whose swing vote can make or break a candidate.
- By Neena Gopal, Foreign Editor
- Published: 23:32 May 3, 2009
Kalpknacheri: The days of the public meeting where hundreds of thousands gathered to hear their hero speak is gone.
Instead, former Industries Minister and present IT czar in the incumbent Chandy government is reaching out to small groups of women, whose swing vote can make or break a candidate.
Popping in and out of homes that reek of Gulf money, in courtyards made of interlocking tiles and under great blue plastic awnings, women and children wait for hours in the baking heat to hear the man they voted in the last time.
As Kunhalikutty finally arrives in this neck of Kuttipuram and begins his spiel promises drinking water, jobs in the state for their young unlike the anti-development Marxists Fatimu, a crone sporting trademark 'gulmini' ear-rings, is unimpressed.
"I'm not going to vote for him unless I get current [electricity] in my house in Nalambara."
Kunhalikutty knows what he's up against. "My battle is with the media," he tells Gulf News, "but even though they've been critical, even the worst pre-poll survey says I'm going to win from here, with a bigger majority than last time. The development has been phenomenal."
He is banking on the League's strong political base.
"Malappuram will be better than the first phase where I project we will get 50 per cent of the seats in the Travancore region."
He's hoping to cash in on the breakaway Indira Congress which also has support. To the world at large though, bringing the Karunakaran faction back into the Congress fold was to unite the anti-Communist platform under one umbrella.
Worried? "We didn't even know there was an anti-incumbency wave in Manjeri. By the time we did, T.K. Hamza had won Manjeri. This time we know. We have a strategy to counter it. We will win the maximum number of seats in Malabar."
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