Campaigning in Kollam came to a colourful conclusion at 6 p.m. on Tuesday with revelry at Chinnakada by supporters of the United Democratic Front, Left Democratic Front, Bharatiya Janata Party, and Social Democratic Party of India who converged there.
The supporters of various political parties began to arrive by 4 p.m. with all their campaign paraphernalia, including campaign vehicles with speaker boxes blaring parody songs and taped campaign messages. The police and Central paramilitary forces were deployed there in strength to keep the situation under control.
But Kollam has the tradition of ending campaigning in a peaceful note with such revelry at Chinnakada during all elections.
Though the contest is considered tough, the end turned into a festive merrymaking and without any untoward incident.
The main candidates, M.A. Baby (LDF), N.K. Premachandran (UDF), P.M. Velayudhan (BJP), and A.K. Salahudeen (SDPI) were at Chinnakada with their supporters for the event.
The supporters restrained themselves from slogan shouting since it could lead to showdown. Instead, the supporters danced waving their respective party flags, posters and election symbols. Apart from the party supporters, a huge crowd also gathered there to witness the colourful end to the campaign phase of the election.
Traffic through the Chinnakada point came to a standstill for more than two hours.
