TRIVANDRUM, 30 April — An array of top leaders, including Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and opposition leader Sonia Gandhi, are descending on Kerala as campaigning for the May 10 assembly elections hots up.
Vajpayee will arrive here on May 7, a day before the campaigning ends. His itinerary is yet to be finalized. Other top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders are also arriving in the state, including Home Minister L.K. Advani, Human Resources Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj, Rural Development Minister Venkaih Naidu, junior ministers Dhananjaya Kumar and Ananth Kumar, BJP President Jana Krishna Moorthy, and Vice President S.P. Gautam. This demonstrates the importance the party attaches to the election in the state. BJP has launched a high voltage campaign in a desperate bid to open an account in the Kerala assembly.
Advani will arrive here on May 6. He will address campaign meetings in Kasaragod, Kunnamangalam, Palakkad and Trichur while Joshi, who arrives May 7, would address meetings in Cochin, Chengannur and Changanassery. Sushma Swaraj is coming on May 5.
Congress President and opposition leader Sonia Gandhi will arrive on May 1. She will address campaign rallies in Kannur, Sultan Bathery, Koilandy, Malappuram, Palakkad, Thodupuzha, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Neyyattinkara, Kollam, Pathamthitta and Cherthala during her three-day tour.
Congress chief ministers S.M. Krishna, Digvijay Singh, Ajit Jogi, Sheila Dixit and Vilasrao Deshmukh will also campaign for Congress-led United Democratic Front candidates. Congress has formed three regional committees headed by P.C. Chacko (Ernakulam), Thalekkunnil Basheer (Trivandrum) and M. Kamalam (Calicut). The party general secretary in charge of Kerala, Gulam Nabi Azad, is already in the state.
Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet will address a rally in support of Left Democratic Front-supported Indian National League candidate Kasim V. Irikkoor on May 1, belying reports that CPI-M leaders were abstaining from campaign for INL candidates. The INL state president, S.A. Puthiya Valappil, would also address the meeting.
The CPI-M has also made available its star campaigners, politburo members Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karat, for the Kerala campaign.
Apart from posters and wall-writings, the CPI-M has also pressed into service its six-edition newspaper, Desabhimani, and television channel, Kairali.
While Desabhimani provides much-needed fodder for the street-corner campaigners, Kairali goes a step further replacing its usual sops for the housewives with serials showing opposition leaders in bad light.
