With 10 days left for polls in State, rival fronts sharpen their rhetoric
Political point scoring, often bordering on the personal, appears to set the tone and tenor of campaigning as it meanders to a close on April 24. It has its fallout on social media in Vadakara and also in the realm of judiciary in Attingal
With just 10 days left for the Lok Sabha polling day on April 26, opposing fronts in Kerala have drastically sharpened their attacks on each other.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi set the ball rolling on Monday by using the bully pulpit of his high ofce to observe, without naming any person or dwelling on details, that the “Chief Minister and his daughter” were subjects of a Central investigation. He also tied the CPI(M) leadership in Thrissur to the Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank scam and promised “wrongdoers” legal retribution and “panicked depositors” the return of their “looted” savings.
Political point scoring, often bordering on the personal, appears to set the tone and tenor of campaigning as it meanders to a close on April 24.
The Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) fast-unfolding probe into the transactions between a Kochi-based mining rm and an IT consultancy owned by the Chief Minister’s daughter and the comings and goings of CPI(M) leaders outside the agency’s oce in Kochi imbue an ominous character to the campaign phase, given Mr. Modi’s harsh spotlighting of the cases during his rallies in the State.
Bruising character
The Lok Sabha election campaign appears to take on an aggressive and bruising character. For one, K.K. Shailaja, CPI(M) candidate from Vadakkara, has accused her rival and Congress leader Sha Parambil of prosecuting a slanderous campaign against her on social media. She has also petitioned the police and the District Electoral Ocer.
The battle at the hustings has also moved into the realm of the judiciary in the Vadakara and Attingal constituencies. Mr. Parambil has petitioned the High Court for paramilitary cover for polling stations in Vadakkara, given the alleged CPI(M) involvement in the Panoor crude bomb blast. He has also sought video recording of the polling process in the constituency to prevent the facilitation of bogus voting by “pro-CPI(M)“ booth ocers. The Congress campaign team in Attingal has approached the High Court alleging fraud in the voters’ list.
Star-studded rallies and aggressive “meet-re-withre tactics” marked the day. Rahul Gandhi held a roadshow in Kozhikode, and the CPI(M) State secretary campaigned in Kannur.
Far away from the heat and dust of the campaign, largely unnoticed squads of political workers took to neighbourhoods and knocked on doors to argue their respective cases for a Lok Sabha vote in 2024.