Scenes from the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls 2014 in Kerala

Getting Personal

Election Commission rules prohibit personal attacks by rival parties and candidates against each other. Parties scoff at this rule. CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan launched a veiled barb at NK Premachandran, the RSP candidate in Kollam (RSP sided with the Congress-led United Democratic Front after CPM denied it the Kollam ticket), by referring to him as a ‘para naari’. Para naari has several nuances in Malayalam. It could mean the person stinks, or a dirty scoundrel, or simply scum, depending on one’s audacity for interpretations. The remarks inevitably kicked up a fuss.

Vijayan explained that he did not refer directly to Premachandran and if Premachandran is offended it can only mean that he indeed fits the description. Examples such as these are legion. Shashi Tharoor, the Congress candidate from Thiruvananthapuram, complained to Election Commission authorities against rivals holding him responsible for the death of wife Sunanda Pushkar.

Rival Bennet Abraham, a Left-backed candidate who runs a medical college, faced allegations that he was behind the death of a girl who studied there.


Difficult Decisions

It is never easy to put one’s finger on the winner in Kerala elections owing to the thin margins that separate victor and vanquished. In Thiruvananthapuram, this exercise has become even more difficult because of the caste affiliations of the principal candidates in the fray. Tharoor and BJP candidate O Rajagopal are Nairs, upper caste Hindus, and will split between them the sizeable chunk of votes of this community. Abraham, a candidate supported by the Left parties and considered a political lightweight initially, is said to have consolidated the votes of his community, the Nadar Christians. Their big numbers pose a big threat to Tharoor in the elections. Tharoor himself said, “I see Bennet as my main rival.” No one wants to predict a winner but there is general agreement that this will be the closest electoral fight in Thiruvananthapuram in recent times.

Tipsy-turvy Days

On the penultimate day before elections (April 10), Kerala seemed to be in tizzy over the absence of liquor for two days due to the ban that sets in until the end of polling. The ban triggered plenty of discussions. The state is one of the largest consumers of liquor in India; frequent visitors will be familiar with the serpentine queues that form before government-run beverages outlets. Many of Kerala’s good citizens cannot pass a day, even hours, without a tipple or two and so the ban for TWO days was nothing short of excruciating. The government shut 413 bars of ‘poor quality’ in the run-up to the polls and the excise minister feared sale of spurious drinks. Judging by the queues before some outlets that stretched to nearly a kilometre, his fears were unfounded. Bars did roaring business until the wee hours of the deadline. Yet, there were many who were not as far-sighted. They knocked on the shuttered doors of outlets and bars hours after the ban set in. Some hung around hoping they could still manage to get hold of a drink or two. In Kerala, democracy’s biggest exercise can be a nuisance.

Campaign Unlimited

It behoves Lok Sabha candidates to follow the Election Commission limit on campaign expenses at Rs 70 lakh. On paper, candidates in Thiruvananthapuram seemed to have agreed to this restriction. Details of expenses produced by the candidates to the Election Commission up to April 6 suggest that Tharoor, Rajagopal and Abraham have been careful about campaign spending. At about Rs 25 lakh, Tharoor, the most high-profile candidate of the lot, has been outspent by his principal competitors. Rajagopal has spent nearly Rs 36 lakh while Abraham’s expenses total about Rs 30 lakh. But an official of the Election Commission, which tracks the expenditure records of candidates, said each of these candidates has spent nearly or crossed the Rs 70-lakh limit. Of course, this amount is what the authorities could gather on the ground. There is no saying how much money has been spent behind the scenes.



The Namesakes

Twenty candidates, the most for a Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala this time round, are fighting elections in Thiruvananthapuram. There are candidates from parties one would least expect to find in Kerala — BSP, Shiv Sena (though it has long had a presence in the capital) and Republican Party of India (which also has a candidate from a splinter group in the fray). Jostling with them and the principal candidates are nine independents. The large presence of independent candidates can mean only one thing — they decided to contest only to scuttle the chances of the main contenders. Parties usually prop up characters whose names sound similar to the opponents to confuse voters. To illustrate: Tharoor faced two persons named Shashi Thirur and Shashi Aroor in the last elections. This time, they haven’t made a reappearance but there is a Bennet Babu Benjamin who is contesting. In Kollam, there are two Premachandrans and one Baby, namesakes of the principal opponents.