On a makeshift dais overlooking the Congress local committee office, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Mullappally Ramachandran and M.K. Raghavan, MP, along with a few khadi-attired leaders stretched out before the summer sun scorched the small venue at Vengeri.
It was barely 8 a.m. on yet another sparkling day in the city.
However, Congress candidate in Kozhikode North Assembly seat K.M. Abhijith was nowhere on the scene for his own poll rally.
Minutes later, an overgrown boy sporting a beard emerged from the adjacent strip of land beside the busy Kakkodi road. “I was searching for a shawl,” Abhijith sheepishly replied.
Are you going to win the elections? “Maybe I will,” he responds with youthful sureness when the KPCC president flagged off his city-tour campaign.
At 26 years of age, Abhijith is probably the youngest candidate in the State. Like David of the Biblical tale, his image appears to have suddenly furbished from an anti-regime demonstrator on campus to take the poll battle to hardened veterans — Thottathil Raveendran, two-time Mayor fielded by the CPI(M) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State general secretary M.T. Ramesh — in this urban segment.
No wonder his poll managers came up with a filmy-style catchword, ‘Abhi jayikkum’ (Abhi will win). His candidacy has struck a sympathetic chord among the cross-section of the electoral profile.
No novice to elections, Abhijith was chairman of the highly-politicised Calicut University Students Union. The assembly poll is a bigger turf for the incumbent KSU State president.
He is the boy-next-door type with no big intentions. And of course, he is the poorest of the candidates in the district as well, his poll managers say.
Energetic appeal
Cut to the electioneering scenario of the Left Democratic Front where Mr. Raveendran is systematically guided in the electoral maze. However, he needs no introduction to Kozhikode. “Raviyettan (as he is fondly called) knows every nook and cranny of the city. He is like a Karanavar for us – irrespective of caste, religion and politics,” P.A. Jaiprakash, a trusted adviser, said.
CPI(M) candidate Thottathil Raveedran exchanging pleasantries with voters during his campaign at Paroppady in Kozhikode.
When he approaches voters whether it is at East Hill or Paroppady or a visit a colony at Vellayil, Mr. Raveendran oozes a positive and energetic appeal. “They have known me all these years. My confidence is that they will not fail me,” Mr. Raveendran said.
Unprecedented style
Never seen before in the election campaigns of the BJP in Kozhikode is the aggressive publicity blitzkrieg of Mr. Ramesh that is shocking both the coalitions. His campaign matches the political machinery of the CPI(M) thus giving a three-pronged contest.
BJP candidate M.T. Ramesh seeking votes at Ashokapuram.
Suave and poised, Mr. Ramesh goes along with an entourage of loyal workers in open jeeps from one junction to another. Whizzing past the Kozhikode bypass, he reached Paroppady where a crowd eagerly awaits him. His words give prominence to the achievements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A few passers-by, impressed by his confidence, stop to hear his speech at Ashokapuram.
“My focus is on the development of Kozhikode initiated through the Centre,” Mr. Ramesh avers.
All three candidates swear by development plans to woo voters. But it will be neutral, apolitical and undecided voters who will decide the legislator of Kozhikode North.
