TRIVANDRUM, India, 9 April 2006 — The Congress party, which is plagued by a rebellion and an eleventh-hour patch-up with Karunakaran’s breakaway party that the rank and file finds difficult to swallow, swung into action yesterday and suspended two prominent leaders who are standing against the official candidates for the April-May elections. State unit president Ramesh Chennithala said he had removed the sitting legislator K.K. Nair, the rebel candidate in Pathanamthitta, and former General Secretary T. Sarat Chandra Prasad, who is contesting the Trivandrum West constituency with Bharatiya Janata Party support, from the primary membership of the party. However, Congress and Democratic Indira Congress-Karunakaran workers are still at odds with most of the 94 constituencies they are contesting as the leadership is putting a brave face. “The arrangement is going very well and we are happy with it. The DIC-K will merge with us after the elections,” senior leader Veerappa Moily, who looks after Kerala affairs, said.
BJP Prospects
The BJP appears closer to opening its account in Kerala. It has put its weight behind Prasad in the state capital. Prasad has a strong support base in the constituency and the BJP came a close second in the segment in the 2004 elections to Parliament when senior leader O. Rajagopal cornered 27,300 votes against Communist Party of India’s 31,571 and Congress’ 25,002. The BJP could win up to three seats this time. The BJP tasted success in Parliament elections in 2004 when its ally P.C. Thomas emerged victorious from Moovattupuzha defeating the two dominant fronts. Rajagopal, who initiated many development projects when he was a junior federal minister, is also in the fray from Palghat.
Candidate With a Difference
Fresh from his studies in Britain, P.V. Sreenijin, 30, is the Congress candidate in Njarakkal constituency of Asia’s most densely populated island of Vypeen, off Cochin. Congress has taken a calculated risk by dumping former minister and sitting member M.A. Kuttappan, who wields considerable clout in the constituency, in favor of Srinijan. The local community of Dalits recalls his days in college when he was a popular activist of the pro-Congress Kerala Students Union. He played club football to support the family but had to quit the game when his mother felt it affected his studies. Sreenijin, barely 16 years, became the family’s sole breadwinner when his father, a local congress leader, died.
A Paradox
The Left Democratic Front (LDF) that the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leads in Kerala promises housing for all in the next five years if elected to power. But Paloli Mohammed Kutty, whom the party’s dominant reformist group wants to be the next chief minister, has no dwelling of his own and his family has rented one in Ponnani where he is the party’s candidate for the third time. According to the mandatory affidavit he filed along with his nomination, he owns 2.63 cents of land, has 500 rupees in cash in hand and 16,747 rupees in bank.
