The scenes of frenzy witnessed at the Attipra ward on Tuesday would have put to rest any debate on election fatigue.
Hardly a week after the general elections concluded, the entire ward was drowned in yet another round of aggressive sloganeering for the by-election. But, there is still no clear front runner with old issues such as the one surrounding the master plan slowly dying out.
The final round of campaigning was distributed at two junctions, Arasummoodu, where the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Left Democratic Front (LDF), and Thrippadapuram, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) campaigned.
The BJP, which came within reach of a historic win in the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency, brought in O. Rajagopal himself to campaign for their candidate R.O. Yamuna. The lead that Mr. Rajagopal got in vote shares from these areas has given the party hopes at the ward-level too, but there are indications that concerns for the voters in local elections could be entirely different.
The LDF is expecting to retain what has been traditionally a red bastion, but the opponents have played up the death of their councillor M.S. Sangeetha, holding the party responsible for it. Her death brought down the LDF’s tally in the council, perilously close to that of the combined Opposition. The opponents have also targeted the Left’s candidate, Shobha Sivadutt, as a proxy for her husband Sivadutt, who had previously held the councillor’s post.
The Attipra ward had witnessed strong protests from residents, under the banner of the Attipra Janakeeya Samara Samithi, over the draft master plan in which residential areas in the ward had been earmarked for IT-based enterprises. Though the master plan has been repealed, the BJP is trying hard to keep the issue alive.
The UDF’s Sreekala has used much of her campaigning to target the ruling LDF.
