Alappuzha: Dr Thomas Isaac seems more worried about his life after the elections than his fate at the hustings. The academician-politician who presided over the finance ministry in the 2006-2011 LDF ministry, and is tipped to take up the job should the LDF return to power this time, has reason to worry if the reports about the health of the state exchequer are correct.
And he shares his worries with the voters when he seeks a second term from Alappuzha, perhaps one of the most beautiful constituencies in the world with its lazy backwaters and picturesque settings. He reaches them in a small campaign boat, all colourful with the red flags and blaring revolutionary songs that praise the communist icons Marx and Lenin, not knowing whether they continue to strike a chord with the young generation as they did with the old one.
Holiday-makers on giant houseboats recognise the bearded communist as he is one of the most followed Facebook celebrities in Kerala. (Dr Isaac gifts Facebook Diary, a 222-page compilation of his Facebook posts, to those who passed SSLC at the meetings.) They show him victory signs which he acknowledges with a smile. “I get about 500 invitations a year from colleges from across the state for various programmes,” he said.
Campaigning with small groups that await him at Nehru Trophy ward (yes, the same place which hosts the world famous Nehru Trophy boat race) Dr Isaac tells them the mess the UDF government has made with the state’s finances which got reflected when the Rs 500 a month pension for agricultural labourers got delayed. He assures an elderly lady who walks up to him with the complaint that she did not get the pension for almost a year.
“We shall set it right,” he assures her, and the audience, mostly made of home-makers in the nightie, the Malayali woman's uniform at home and for informal occasions. “We shall make it Rs 1,000 and the postman will deliver the money home.”
“The UDF will leave it front-loaded after taking loans from every available source,” he said of the state’s economy. “It will be an uphill task,” he said when asked how the LDF will meet its promises should it come to power and follow up on the projects the UDF has already announced.
The politician who seeks a fourth term to the state assembly makes a short speech at every stop. The points are same, but very sharp. One is the extreme callous way the police went about the brutal murder of the Dalit law student Jisha in Perumbavoor in Eranakaulam district.
Not one of the rules was followed after her death, he tells the audience. "They cremated the body even without giving her dear mother a chance to see her body one last time," Dr Isaac says after a pause so that the women could get a grasp of the seriousness of the governmental slip. And then he put up his demand: defeat his rival advocate Laly Vincent of the Congress with double his margin of 16,000 in the 2011 elections.
“And remember, I never misused the trust you have bestowed on me for my personal interests’ everything I did was for the people.” People nod in agreement as this is a claim not many politician can make.
