Though it houses the only municipality in Kerala where the BJP is in power, wresting the Palakkad Assembly constituency continues to remain an uphill task for the party. During his hectic campaigning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose Palakkad as the first campaign venue because of the high priority his party accords to the constituency.
Though the Prime Minister’s visit boosted the morale of party workers in general, continuing factionalism within the BJP local unit and the antipathy of party district leadership to candidacy of Sobha Surendran are pushing the BJP to third position.
The factional fights that began much ahead of the electioneering have turned a major challenge to the BJP in Palakkad.
Now the battle is between UDF’s Shafi Parambil and LDF’s N.N. Krishnadas.
High hopes
Though the municipality is ruled by the BJP, two grama panchayats in the Assembly constituency are governed by the LDF and the remaining one is under the UDF. Sangh Parivar organisations had high hopes earlier about opening an account in the State Assembly by winning the constituency which has a sizeable population of linguistic minorities.
Performance
The UDF has fielded Shafi Parambil, MLA, taking into account his performance in the last five years in the constituency. Though the district CPI(M) leadership proposed former MLA K.K. Divakaran, the State committee decided to filed Mr. Krishnadas as he continues to wield much influence over a large section of the electorate cutting across party lines.
As the constituency has 1,72,875 voters, the candidate who fetches above 55,000 votes would win in a triangular contest. The LDF has greater hopes in Kannadi and Pirayiri grama panchayats where it improved its tally in the last local body election. Only Mathur went in UDF’s favour. The constituency has 5,939 maiden voters.
While the UDF is trying to take credit for establishing a new medical college in Palakkad using SC welfare fund, the LDF says it would bring the medical college under the Directorate of Medical Education, if voted to power, and establish a super-specialty hospital attached to it.
Factionalism in local unit may mar the party’s prospects in the election
