KOTTAYAM: Poonjar is witnessing an exciting contest. Sitting legislator P.C. George is taking on candidates of three formidable alliances with sheer audacity and local support and an opportunistic combination of political and religious outfits. He wants to avenge the LDF for refusing to accommodate him after taking his support in the local elections.
Thus, it is a four-cornered contest against P.C. Joseph of LDF, fielded by Kerala Congress Democratic, Georgekutty Augusthy of Kerala Congress (M) and M.R. Ullas of the BDJS (NDA). To embarrass the CPI (M), he promises to support V.S. Achuthanandan in his fight against party strongman Pinarayi Vijayan in a probable post-poll scenario.
He also predicts a fractured verdict in which he “and the people of Poonjar” would call the shots. Vijayan thwarted his bid to woo the CPI (M) cadres with the bait and he reportedly warned them against the designs of the man "who engineered defection of one of our MLAs to the UDF."
He minced no words while maintaining that the party would take a stern stand against party members helping Mr George. Sensing trouble, Mr George has intensified his campaign and fine-tuned strategies to reach out to more voters visiting each household and making emotional appeals.
He tells them the LDF has deceived them all and they need to retain self-esteem.
The Kanjirapally diocese is most likely to take a position against him. Its pastoral letter had already urged the parishioners to elect those who uphold political morality and decency.
SDPI, a Muslim outfit with substantial votes here is supporting him. He is also in secret parleys with the BJP. Candidates of the LDF and the UDF hope to retain their traditional voters and attract anti-George votes especially those who are upset at opportunistic deals with SDPI and BJP at the same time.
The loyalty of Congress workers, disgruntled at the denial of the seat to DCC president Tomy Kallany is also unpredictable. The Poonjar constituency had a tradition of electing the Kerala Congress candidates.
