Muslims key as Veerendra Kumar fights outsider tag in Palakkad seat

PALAKKAD: In Palakkad, the United Democratic Front ( UDF) has put up one of the senior most leaders in the coalition, MP Veerendra Kumar of Socialist Janatha Democratic (SJD). Veerendra Kumar, the former Union minister of state for labour and finance, is taking on sitting MP of the constituency MB Rajesh of CPM.

UDF’s bid to capture the seat in 2009 by fielding Satheesan Pacheni backfired as Rajesh won the seat, though with a slender majority of less than 2000 votes. This time UDF’s attempt is to capture the seat by fielding well known author and the managing director of Mathrubhumi daily Veerendra Kumar.

Till 2009, Veerendra Kumar was in the Left Democratic Front (LDF). He left the front over a seat sharing dispute and joined the UDF as president of his new party, SJD. Despite the hot weather in Palakkad (highest in Kerala), the 76 year old Veerendra Kumar is giving his much younger opponent a good fight.

But an argument often made in the constituency in favour of Rajesh is that he will be in the constituency and is approachable whereas Veerendra Kumar is an outsider. ET met Veerendra Kumar at Palakkad at his house and asked him about the outsider tag. “Who is not an outsider?” he asks.

“CPM leaders like VS Achuthananthan and EK Nayanar, who contested from Malampuzha, AK Gopalan, who contested from Palakkad Lok Sabha seat, were all outsiders,” he points out.

“The other allegation about me and my family is that we encroached on government land,” he said, adding that the incident cited in the allegation is said to have happened in 1942 when he was only 6 or 7 years old. Veerendra Kumar criticised the CPM for keeping the Palakkd district in a state of under development.

MB Rajesh, on the other hand, is someone who nursed his constituency well and is currently reaping the benefit out of it. He spent 101% of his MP fund, says a brochure about him brought out by the CPM. It lists out the various things that he has done for the constituency in the last 5 years. Even the spokesman of the local industries association had only good things to talk about their sitting MP. Palakkad is traditionally known as a safe seat for the Left Front candidates.

Shobha Surendran is the BJP candidate in the constituency . The Left parties have a strong base in Malampuzha, Kasargod, Ottappalam and Shornur. The majority that the candidates get from these segments is usually much more than what the UDF candidates gets from other areas.

However,this time UDF is pinning its hopes on the Muslim votes which will be nearly 30 % of the total votes. Muslim League leaders are campaigning for Veerendra Kumar. But the big question is whether the voters will shift their loyalties from their MP MB Rajesh.