Thiruvananthapuram: On Sunday evening, small towns across Kerala witnessed the grand finale of the monthlong Lok Sabha election campaigning, when the campaign volunteers converged in town centres, singing and dancing to the accompaniment of drums, cymbals and whistles, and some physical altercations thrown it at a few places.
In some places, there was lightning and thundershowers drenching party volunteers who had worked in sweltering summer heat that was close to 40 degree Celsius in many places.
On Monday, it was time for all parties to sit down and make their own private calculations about the likely voting pattern and the prospects for their respective candidates.
A record 227 candidates are in the fray for Kerala’s 20 Lok Sabha constituencies this year. Wayanad gets top-of-the-mind attention this time because Congress president Rahul Gandhi is contesting from there.
For the same reason, a slew of political heavyweights flew down to Kerala this time, including prime minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Communist Party of India Marxist national secretary Sitaram Yechury, and Gandhi’s sister Priyanka Vadra among them.
Besides Wayanad, the attention was focused on two other constituencies, Thiruvananthapuram and Pathanamthitta. In Thiruvananthapuram, sitting MP Shashi Tharoor is locked in a three-cornered contest against BJP’s Kummanam Rajasekharan and Communist Party of India’s C. Divakaran.
In Pathanamthitta, where the Sabarimala controversy was a key campaign point, Congress’ sitting MP Anto Antony has a tough fight against CPM’s Veena George and BJP’s K. Surendran.
The intense summer heat took away some of the campaign thunder, but party supporters managed to keep the tempo up until the last hour of public campaigning on Sunday.
Songs were a big hit this time, with Congress candidate in Alathur, Remya Haridas winning voters’ hearts with her songs as much as with slogans, Kerala Congress veteran P.J. Joseph penning a song in praise of Rahul Gandhi and singing it on stage before Gandhi, and Clara Anna Eden, the six-year-old daughter of Congress candidate from Ernakulam, Hibi Eden recording a campaign song for her father.
Beyond all the number crunching, when Kerala goes to vote from 7am to 6pm on Tuesday, one question on everyone’s mind will be whether the BJP will open its Lok Sabha account in the state.
The party won its first assembly seat in 2016 when O. Rajagopal won from Nemom. Whether BJP will repeat that with a Lok Sabha constituency is the politically most relevant point doing the rounds in Kerala ahead of the voting.
