Cultural capital gets the taste of a triangular contest

Thrissur: As the poll campaign enters final phase, it is becoming clear that the Thrissur assembly seat will witness a tough triangular contest. The battle of ballots in this constituency is critical for all three candidates – Padmaja Venugopal (Congress), V S Sunilkumar (CPI) and B Gopalakrishnan (BJP) – as well as for the parties they belong to.
While the LDF and BJP nominees have been focusing on house visits, Padmaja has been banking on family meets in the last phases of electioneering.Congress leaders believe her interactions at such meetings have helped her build a positive impression among voters.
“We had a different image about her from media reports, but now we feel she is very down-to-earth and accessible,” says Sathidevi, who works at a consumer store at Koorkkenchery, after one such family meet. Local Congress leaders, meanwhile, say they are finding it tough to cope with the rigour and energy she displays on the campaign front.
For the Congress, this is a seat which party nominee Therambil Ramakrishnan had been holding for over 25 years, and the party leadership had chosen to replace him rather abruptly. The party had a lead of over 6,000 votes in the Thrissur assembly segment in the last Parliament elections when its nominee K P Dhanapalan lost the Lok Sabha seat. On a personal level too, Padmaja finds this election crucial – not just for her political future, but to reinforce the claim that her father, the late K Karunakaran, had close links with the people of Thrissur.
The support extended by the Archdiocese, though denied later, has also boosted her confidence. Top sources in the party are, nevertheless, worried that such open expression of support by the church may invite the wrath of the majority community as well as that of members of the church who are opposed to the present leaders of the Archdiocese.
The CPI has fielded firebrand leader Sunilkumar, the current MLA of Kaipamangalam, to wrest this Congress seat. The party had also exempted him from the twoterm norm. That the LDF wrested the Thrissur corporation from the UDF in the last local body polls is a morale booster for the Front. For Sunilkumar, this is also a referendum on the fights he had led during the last two terms.
As for NDA candidate B Gopalakrishnan, he has been playing a vital role in the BJP as the state organizing secretary, and like his party, he too has pinned much hope on this fight considering that the vote share of the BJP has been on the rise in Thrissur assembly segment – from 8,000 votes in the last assembly election to 14,000 in the Lok Sabha poll and 25,000 in the last local body election.
During a brief stopover, amid his campaign, at the house of a voter at Mookkattukara near Mannuthy, Gopalakrishnan whispers, “This is a traditional LDF family. The Deshabhimani (CPM’s official organ) is lying on the table. The elders still go with the CPM, but the youths are with us”. Meanwhile, Sunilkumar’s campaign managers deny allegations of lack of coordination between the CPI and CPM. “CPM activists, led by party area secretary P K Shajan, are leading the campaign at every point. Even minute issues are being jointly attended to by CPM and CPI leaders,” says Anilkumar, a CPI leader.
“Even in areas like East Fort, a traditional Cong ress stronghold, the youngsters are welcoming Sunilkumar’s candidature. The AAP, which had put up a good show in some parts of the city in the last Parliamentary election, is not contesting this time. Its supporters too hail Sunilkumar’s anti-corruption stand,” he said.
A closer look at his campaign indicates that he is able to mix freely with voters of all sections. The other day, a group of women standing in front of a self-help group office at Ollukkara mobbed him when he arrived for house visit. “We feel like he is one among us, and we’re sure he will speak for us in the assembly,” said Saramma Mathappan, a selfhelp group member.