Poonjar which is located about 40 kms from Kottayam is now in the throes of a high level political drama. With former UDF whip and sitting MLA PC George all set to contest as an independent candidate from here in the upcoming Kerala assembly elections due on May 16, both the Left and the ruling fronts are going all out to ensure his defeat.
It’s common knowledge among the masses here that both the LDF and the UDF have only one aim in mind and are unwilling to leave a single leaf unturned so as to ensure PC George’s –the incumbent MLA- defeat.
George himself however seems utterly unconcerned. Speaking to The News Minute, George is extremely confident of retaining his seat. “They are so sure that I will win. That is why they are roping in these leaders. But let me tell you, nothing is going to happen. Bringing these leaders will be of absolutely no use,” says a very confident P C George.
Ever since his win in the 1980 state elections, George is a very well-known and strong political contender in Poonjar which also doubles up as his home turf. Ahead of the 2011 elections, George -who was earlier with the LDF- merged his party with the Kerala Congress (M) and then later integrated with the UDF.
In those elections, Kottayam largely went with the UDF, with the exception of Vaikom and Ettumanoor.
Despite having been with both fronts, neither of them were ready to accommodate George as their candidate in the 2016 elections, as his “tongue has always been his biggest enemy.”
Apart from the state’s political outlaw P C George, we have Georgekutty Augusthy as the UDF candidate, PC Joseph for the LDF and MR Ullas from the NDA to complete the four-cornered electoral contest that Poonjar is all set to see.
Each one of them is a known political shifter who shares a hazy ideological divide, having hopped from one party to the other. And they have all been party colleagues at one time or the other. Talk about political bonhomie!
Georgekutty Augusthy who is the UDF candidate is a former NDA ally and one who played a major role in the 2004 campaign to defeat Jose K Mani –former state finance minister KM Mani’s son- in Muvattupuzha. Augusthy is now ironically contesting under the banner of Kerala Congress (Mani).
It was also just a couple of months back that P C Joseph left the UDF to now appear before the Poonjar voters as their LDF candidate.
The NDA alliance chose M R Ullas as their candidate. A former SFI (leftist students’ union) activist, Ullas now swears by the newly floated Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) party to which he belongs.
While George has won 6 out of 7 times that he has contested assembly elections in Kerala, Joseph has been a one-time legislator and Augusthy had once tried his luck as an independent candidate, but had failed to impress the electorate.
With just a little more than a couple of weeks left for the polls, Poonjar has now become a hub of intense politicking with senior leaders across party lines rushing to Poonjar to campaign for their respective candidates.
But George believes that the voters in Poonjar can see through such political wiles: “Both the UDF and LDF consider Poonjar natives as load-bearing donkeys. It is the people’s very self-respect that they have questioned. That is exactly why this election is important for my people. And on May 19 -the day the results will be declared- they will have restored their self-respect by voting me in yet again. The people of Poonjar will prove that they are horses and not donkeys.”
While the Left saw CPI(M) heavyweights V S Achuthanandan, Pinarayi Vijayan and Prakash Karat hit the campaign trail here, it’s reported that former union defence Minister A K Antony and state home minister Ramesh Chennithala will also campaign for the UDF candidate in the coming days.
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