Shashi Tharoor hogs the election limelight

Thiruvananthapuram: Among the more than 200 candidates in Kerala, perhaps the one most written and spoken about is hardly a politician.

Shashi Tharoor, a former United Nations under-secretary general, has been hogging the media limelight in Kerala in the race to the 2009 Lok Sabha, being hailed, reviled and facing some indifference as well.

The Thiruvananthapuram constituency was won in 2004 by the CPI leader P.K. Vasdudevan Nair, and on his demise the by-election was won by CPI's Pannian Ravindran. This time, the CPI has fielded P. Ramachandran Nair, a low profile candidate.

There are other contestants like the BJP's P.K. Krishnadas and Bahujan Samaj Party's Neelalohitadasan Nadar in the fray, but the arc lights have mostly been on Tharoor.

The early phase of his entry into the contest was marked by some reported displeasure among the youth ranks in the Congress, but Tharoor has appeared to be unruffled by such problems. There has also been the allegation that he is an outsider and cannot speak Malayalam fluently.

Tharoor countered that, asking: "Is it how you tie the mundu [Indian sarong] and the knowledge of Malayalam that matters in the Lok Sabha?" With every passing day he seems to be growing in confidence and the contest appears to be getting keener.

Key factors influencing the result would be the wholehearted support of Congress cadres to Tharoor, a wholehearted support of the CPM cadres to the CPI candidate, and the number of votes that will be garnered by Neelalohitadasan Nadar and Krishnadas. In 2004, BJP's O. Rajagopal garnered 2,28,000 votes, which was the party's best performance in the state.

Meanwhile, the Kozhikode constituency in north Kerala shot into the limelight following the CPM decision to eject Janata Dal (S) from there, despite the fact that the sitting MP of Kozhikode is JD(S) state president M.P. Veerendrakumar.

Veerendrakumar had won in 2004 with a margin in excess of 65,000 votes, but the JD(S) finds itself without a single seat to contest this time. The CPM is expected to face the wrath of the JD(S) for this development in Kozhikode as well as in other constituencies.

Having dumped the JD(S) from Kozhikode, the CPM expects the party to support it in Kozhikode, and whether that dream will materialise could well decide the result in Kozhikode. The Congress has fielded M.K. Raghavan to take on CPM's Mohammad Riyaz in Kozhikode. The third serious candidate is BJP's V. Muraleedharan.

The CPM's argument for annexing the Kozhikode constituency was that the delimitation had created a favourable climate for its candidate.

Assembly constituencies like Beypore and Kunnamangalam where the CPM has proven strength have been added to Kozhikode in the delimitation exercise. But with the JD(S) sulking, the CPM's calculations may not be well placed.