: Differences cannot be any starker as the campaign for the Aruvikkara Assembly by-election gets into top gear with exactly a week to go for polling. On the one side is Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan with his aggression and firepower, touching upon everything from the solar scam to bar bribery to the BJP’s failure to keep its promise to bring back ill-gotten money stashed away in Swiss banks. On the other side is Chief Minister Oommen Chandy with his subdued and matter-of-fact speeches, focusing almost entirely on his government’s development initiatives and UDF candidate K.S. Sabarinadhan’s pedigree and, at times, very rarely hurtling towards the ‘bomb politics’ of the CPI(M).
Development
On Saturday afternoon, Mr. Chandy was at Vandakkal in Uzhamalakkal panchayat telling a small gathering of farm workers and their families about his government’s efforts to bring in big ticket development projects such as the Kannur airport, Kochi Metro, Smart City and now the Vizhinjam seaport, something that no government over the past 25 years could achieve.
His government, Mr. Chandy reminds his audience, has also been placing equal emphasis on welfare, its biggest initiatives being the setting up of government medical colleges in all districts, making generic medicines free for the poor and the Karunya Benevolent Scheme under which support had been extended to over 92,000 families.
The CPI(M), but contrast, has always turned its face against development and it was now opposing even the Vizhinjam project.
If the Chief Minister mostly speaks to small gatherings, Mr. Achuthanandan has been addressing large public meetings, raising the spirits of the Opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) cadres, who receive every single one of his thrice-repeated punch lines with loud cheers and claps.
The nonagenarian appears to gain in spirit and energy as he stands before the large audience at Aruvikkara junction on Saturday evening, warning Mr. Chandy and Finance Minister K.M. Mani about what awaits them in the people’s court and poking at fun at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP nominee O. Rajagopal.
The Chief Minister has been spending hours almost everyday in the Aruvikkara constituency. Mr. Achuthanandan has been returning there everyday, addressing just one or two meetings a day.
The coming days would see the two hitting the campaign trail more intensely, culminating in a roadshow by the Leader of the Opposition. For the Congress, it would be Congress Working Committee member A.K. Antony who would take the baton from Mr. Chandy as the campaign reaches its climax.
