Campaigning for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections is taking curious turns in Vadakara, where one of the most keenly watched political battles in Kerala in recent times is being fought now.
K.K. Shailaja, Mattannur MLA, and former Health Minister, of the Left Democratic Front (LDF), Shafi Parambil, Palakkad MLA, of the United Democratic Front (UDF), and C.R. Praphul Krishnan of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) are in the fray here.
From the beginning, the UDF camp has been focussing on political violence and the alleged role of the CPI(M) in political murders, including that of party rebel and Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) founder T.P. Chandrasekharan. Onchiyam, the native place of Chandrasekharan, is part of the constituency. K.K. Rema, Chandrasekharan’s wife, RMP leader, and Vadakara MLA, is actively campaigning for the UDF. Ms. Rema had won the 2021 Assembly election with UDF support.
They have now got a shot in the arm in the form of a bomb blast in Panoor, which falls in the Koothuparamba Assembly seat in Kannur and is part of the Vadakara Lok Sabha segment. While Sherin, who died in the blast, was reportedly a sympathiser of the CPI(M), those arrested by the police in connection with the incident are linked to the Democratic Youth Federation of India. The Congress and its allies such as the Indian Union Muslim League are claiming that the CPI(M) has been planning to engineer bomb blasts on election day to stop people from coming to vote. The reported anti-incumbency feeling against Union and State governments is the other major issue being raked up by the UDF.
The LDF camp, however, has been changing its tactics as the campaign progresses. In recent days, when a video of a group of women activists of the UDF raising slogans, allegedly mocking job scheme workers, went viral on social media, the LDF promptly called it an insult to the working class. When parts of a TV interview with Ms. Shailaja were edited and circulated to allege that she had termed Muslims as ‘extremists’, the party machinery widely shared the whole interview to debunk the claim.
Ms. Shailaja’s performance as Health Minister, the accolades she received from across the globe, and the popularity she enjoys among a cross section of voters had formed the basis of the LDF campaign initially. Later on, when some UDF activists allegedly raised slogans against Ms. Shailaja, calling her a ‘thief’ while referring to the reported irregularities in the purchase of PPE kits during the pandemic, the LDF jumped on to her defence.
In a complaint with the Election Commission, the LDF also claimed that a morphed photo of Ms. Shailaja and the Kerala Chief Minister were used in a vulgar manner in a Facebook group named ‘Troll Republic TR’.
