KOLLAM: A desperate CPI is trying to retain Karunagapally but Congress has fielded youth power to prevent it. UDF candidate C.R. Mahesh is on his final lap of visiting voters where people receive him with much enthusiasm. Unlike other candidates who use open vehicles to tour the constituency, he has a pilot vehicle announcing his arrival and is on barefoot visiting the meeting arranged in nook and corner of the constituency.
Mr Mahesh entered mainstream politics through the Kerala Students Union and is currently the Youth Congress state vice-president. He is a local boy, hailing from Thazhava. The LDF is confident with its candidate, CPI district secretary and state council member R. Ramachandran, who hails from Thodiyoor here. He became the district secretary in 2012.
In the constituency where the UDF has projected its candidate as the youth icon, the CPI is conducting youth rallies to attract them. The party had shifted C. Divakaran from Karunagappally to Nedumangad and the decision will prove unwise if the senior leaer could not beat Palode Ravi there and Karunagappally candidate R. Ramachandran too bites the dust.
Mr Mahesh got a chance to take on the CPI in its forte as a representative of the youth. The constituency has favoured the UDF only twice since its formation, in 1982 and 2001. Mr Divakaran of CPI, the incumbent, has won two elections in a row. He defeated Rajanbabu of JSS by 12,496 and 14,522 votes respectively in 2006 and 2011. The NDA has fielded BDJS candidate V. Sadasivan, who is also an SN Trust board member.
