ALAPPUZHA: By chance if you reach the camp office of LDF candidate Thomas Chandy at Pooppally in Kuttanad, you could be mistaken for an aid-seeker. Mr Chandy, famed for handouts to the poor, is at the durbar, disposing of requests, though with an embargo till May 17.
May 16 is the polling day and Mr Chandy is discrete lest his charity should ruffle poll observers, who keep tabs on dole-outs. Daveedputhra Charitable Society, run by his family, distributes an average Rs 50 lakh to the needy each year. He has a reputation, but will it ensure a hat-trick this time as the NCP nominee?
Mr Chandy had achieved the near-impossible when he trounced Dr K C Joseph (Kerala Congress-M) in 2006 and held on to the feat in 2011. But 2016 is a different scene. Prof Subash Vasu, the general secretary of Bharat Dharma Jana Sena, poses a formidable challenge as the Ezhava community accounts for 51,000 out of the total electorate of 160,851.
Says Prof Vasu: “This is our prestige contest. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is addressing an election campaign rally at St Aloysius School grounds at Edathua on May 8. This shows how the National Democratic Alliance has invested in this seat. I am sure of tipping the scale against the sitting MLA, whose margin of victory was a little over 8,000”.
The Ezhava vote is the X factor in Assembly segments from Ernakulam to Thiruvannanthapuram. Given the strong base of both the LDF and the UDF, the NDA may not be able to notch up enough numbers to win. But BDJS would determine the winner.
Already, the LDF camp is unnerved by the BDJS campaign, targeted at the pro-Left members of the community. The BDJS has made inroads in Kuttanadu, which is arguably one of the worst constituencies in terms of deprivation and a fertile ground for poaching by the new pro-Ezhava party.
The major complaint is that despite Mr Chandy’s beneficence, the below-sea-level Kuttanadu is still in the grip of the paradox of water scarcity, though surrounded by water. Prof Vasu and the UDF candidate, Mr Jacob Abraham (KC-M), accuse Mr Chandy of ignoring real issues and gloating on charity. Mr Chandy attributes the major problem of drinking water shortage to perpetual issues rather than any of his own making.
“We have completed door-to-door campaign, covering as many as 13,000 families. We hope to relegate Mr Chandy to the third place this time”, says Mr M T Purushothaman, BDJS leader and secretary of Kuttanad SNDP Union.
Mr Binu, who lives at Pandarakulam, says the Ezhava erosion in the Left camp would benefit UDF’s Mr Abraham.
But Mr Chandy reckons that the BDJS would annex a maximum 8,000 votes and he could still keep his stakes intact because Kerala Congress (Democratic) has clout here and its support would offset the impact of the BDJS factor. But that is a dismal scenario because margins are too narrow even by Mr Chandy’s own calculations.
