Alappuzha: It’s a prestige battle for home minister Ramesh Chennithala on his home turf of Haripad which had always favoured him, though not the UDF. LDF had also won this seat twice since 1996. If it went the UDF way in 2006 and 2011, it had elected the LDF candidates in 1996 and 2001.
Mr Chennithala won the seat in 2011 by a margin of over 5,500 votes defeating LDF's G. Krishna Prasad, and he is confident of retaining it given the civic poll results. The UDF had swept the Haripad municipality. UDF is now working hard to increase his victory margin, citing various development initiatives like a multi-crore medical college.
The CPI had fielded P. Prasad for the LDF here, and they too are busy organising street corner meetings, family get-togethers and door-to-door campaigns countering Mr Chennithala's claims. Mr Prasad, basically from Pathanamthitta district, calls upon voters to remove "corrupt" UDF government.
The BJP, which had secured just 3,145 votes in 2011, has fielded D. Aswanidev, a Kayamkulam Municipality councillor, this time, banking on the influence of the Bharatiya Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) here.
