Kochi: The Ernakulam Lok Sabha seat, considered safest for the Congress-led UDF, is now focal point of election battle with Congress denying ticket to incumbent MP Prof. K.V. Thomas. The decision created a tremor in the political circles with the Prof. Thomas openly expressing his sense of betrayal even as the LDF candidate P. Rajeev of CPM moved ahead with a methodical campaign for the past 10 days.
Prof. Thomas, a five-time MP from Ernakulam, was furious even as party leadership managed to mollify him by Sunday evening. His replacement Hibi Eden, MLA, has his work cut-out. Congress party netted 41.54 percent of the total votes polled in 2014 when his predecessor won the seat with a majority of 87,047 votes.
But unlike last time when LDF fielded a political novice like Christy Fernandez as an independent candidate this time it has put-up P. Rajeev, having the reputation of being the most energetic of the new generation CPM leaders.
Rajeev’s performance as an MP in the Rajya Sabha has won accolades and developmental projects initiated by him as an MP in the constituency, especially in the health sector, will be one of the key points during the campaign. Hibi has launched his campaign with a rousing convention at the Town Hall on Monday and tied-up to complete the assembly-level conventions by March 21. Rajeev meanwhile is scheduled to complete the panchayat-level conventions in the next few days and launch door-to-door campaign thereafter.
