As the election campaign for the Palakkad Assembly by-election in Kerala concludes on Monday, November 18 the politics of turncoats have dominated the scene.
The primary reason for turncoat politics to dominate arose after the CPI(M) decided to field a popular former Congress leader, Dr P Sarin, in the district. Sarin had lost the Ottapalam Assembly election in 2021 when he contested as the Congress candidate.
As soon as the bye-election date was announced came the news that Sarin who was unhappy after not getting the Congress ticket, shifted loyalties. The CPI(M) named him as its candidate.
No sooner than the CPI(M) began celebrating Sarin’s candidature, the social media was full of trolls against the CPI(M) in general and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in particular.
As the war on social media got intense, it appeared initially that the Congress candidate Rahul Mamkoothathil had an edge. But internal party bickerings soon came out. Local leaders have regarded Mamkoothathil as an ‘outstation’ candidate as he hails from far away Pathanamthitta district.
The BJP also had its share of problems after a popular local leader and a familiar face, Krishnakumar was fielded. Some sections in the party wanted firebrand woman leader Sobha Surendran to be fielded.
The campaign got a boost when the earlier announced date of the byepolls, November 13 was shifted to November 20 on account of the Kalpathi temple festival in the constituency on November 13.
When the BJP was heaving a sigh of relief after settling the candidate issue, came a big jolt when their hugely popular leader from Palakkad, Sandeep Varier, joined the Congress party.
Incidentally, as Sandeep did not have a good relationship with the party, and sensing that he might shift loyalties, the local top CPI(M) leadership tried their best to woo him, but he decided to join Congress. After he joined Congress, the biggest critics turned out to be the CPI(M) leaders rather than the BJP, who lost one of their popular youth leaders.
The bye-election, slated for November 20, was necessitated after sitting four-time Congress legislator Shafi Parambil vacated the seat following his election from the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency. Shafi in the 2021 Assembly elections was given a tough fight by Metroman E Sreedharan, a BJP candidate. In the end, the former scraped through by a margin of less than 4,000 votes.
The extended election campaign ended at 5 pm on November 18 and all three political fronts have expressed confidence that their candidate will win. The counting will be held on November 23.