In Peravur constituency, which encompasses many hill areas with large concentration of settlers, sitting MLA K.K. Shylaja of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is seeking re-election. Her prime opponent in the constituency, which is a traditional stronghold of the United Democratic Front (UDF), is Congress leader Sunny Joseph.
Both the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the UDF leave nothing to chance here — the former does not want to lose the seat while the latter seeks to prove that Peravur is still its bastion.
The UDF camp believes that the delimitation has made the constituency friendlier towards it. In the local body elections, the UDF won five panchayats and the LDF pocketed four. If the local body election is the yardstick, the LDF has a marginal lead of 1,686 votes in the constituency. If the benchmark is the last Lok Sabha poll, the UDF polled 19,153 votes more.
The UDF campaigners say that the merger of the Kottiyur, Kelakam, Kanichar panchayats, where the UDF has a clear edge, augurs well for the front. Some of the CPI (M) stronghold areas that formed part of the old Peravur now come under Mattannur constituency.
While Mr. Joseph, former district Congress president and current chairman of the district UDF, has the advantage of hailing from a settler family here, Ms. Shylaja goes to the voters showing developmental works in the constituency during the past five years and a plea for continuity of the LDF government in the State. She reminds the voters of projects estimated at Rs.500 crore in the constituency, including the ones that have been started and those yet to be launched.
The electioneering of Mr. Joseph, on the other hand, points to the lack of development in the constituency, especially in Kelakam and Kottiyur panchayats which were earlier part of the North Wayanad constituency. A hill area taluk for the eastern hill areas in the district is a longstanding demand of the people in the area. Mr. Joseph tells the voters that if elected, this demand would be the first he would raise in the Assembly. He also shares plans for expanding educational facilities in the constituency: a new education sub-district for Peravur and an arts and science college there.
BJP's candidate
The BJP, which has fielded P.K. Velayudhan, is also actively present on the campaign front. Mr. Velayudhan's buzzword is corruption. He says that both the LDF and the UDF are not free from corruption.
