The drooping flags and remnants of posters torn by the force of rain summed up the campaign mood on Tuesday morning: gloomy and washed out.
As heavy rain pounded the city till around 10 a.m., candidates put their campaign on hold, and wrung their hands in despair as time for campaigning was running out. The scrutiny of nominations was over only on October 17, and the campaign is allowed only till October 30.
The forecast of more rain from the northeast monsoon from Wednesday weighs ominously in their minds. “Totally, we got only 13 days for the campaign. It will be a washout if the rain forecast turns true,” said Communist Party of India (CPI) candidate for Ward 36 at Kallayi Kanangat Haridasan.
Former Mayor and Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate from Ward 68 (Chakorathukulam) Thottathil Raveendran said: “We could not step out for the campaign because of heavy rain. We could get into the wards only later in the day. We are in trouble if the monsoon sets in as predicted.”
Congress member Sreekumar said heavy rain left the streets flooded in Ward 27 (Puthiyara area), which he had represented for the last five years. Campaigning for party candidate C.R. Syamala, he said the campaign mode had to be changed. “Vehicles could not enter some streets owing to water-logging. So, we had to walk through the ward.”
Tuesday’s downpour was, however, to the advantage of the voters. When the candidates and their campaign managers thought it was ideal to get to the ground, they were confronted by a flood of complaints from voters over the persistent problem of water-logging.
Mr. Haridasan said he ran into a spate of complaints of water-logging. “Kallayi is a low-lying area along the river. Among the many colonies, Manari is the worst-affected because of silt forming blocks in stormwater drains. We were confronted by residents at many locations, as they wanted to point out the problem they had been enduring for years,” he said. North Mankave Residents Association secretary E. Vinod Kumar said people in his colony in Ward 34 had been facing the problem of water-logging for many years and it had worsened over the last two years.
