kerala

Unprecedentedly  tight  electoral  battle  in Thrissur

By   our  Special  political  correspondent

Thrissur,  March  28  (IVC)   All the  three national   political  parties  candidates  are making their best  efforts  to win  the election from the Thrissur Parliamentary  Constituency (TPC)  to be held on April 26. 

                K  Muraleedharan, Karunakaran ‘s son  is the Indian national  Congress candidate, Advocate V S Sunilkumar, CPI candidate and the noted   Malayalam  cine-star,  Suresh  Gopi  is the BJP  candidate , contesting  from Thrissur, the cultural capital of kerala.

                The  election  hot  plate is under  maximum temperature now itself. CPI  candidate has no  anxiety  at all  of winning this time as out  of 17  Lok Sabha  elections  CPI won 11  times and Congress won the election only six times.  Hence the LDF camp holds the view that it is a pro-CPI  constituency. Prominent leaders of CPI like  K K Warrier, C GJ  Janardhanan, C K  Chandrappan and V V Raghavan  had won from Thrissur.

                V V Rafghavan defeated the Congress leader and four-times Chief Minister of Kerala K Karunakaran in 1996  and his son K Muraleedharan in 1998  and earned the sobriquet  of giant-killer.

                CPI camp  expressed the hope  of winning the election this time  without much difficulty  as the overall  situation is in  its  favour.

                Muraleedharan was nominated by  the AICC  for Thrissur at the last moment  in the light of his direct-sister  Padmaja Venugopal’s joining the Bharatiya Janata Party , the enemy  of  the Indian National  Congress  and his late beloved father  Karunakaran.

                UDF camp  finds that the situation of Thrissur  in 1998  was entirely  different today and the political situation is quite favourable to  Congress  party. 

                The  ruling Left  Democratic Front (LDF)  was under great stress of financial stringency. The  opposition UDF attributes the financial stringency  in the State to lavishness of ministers  and LDF MLAS.  The  law and order position of the State  was controlled by the CPM’s students wing –

Students  Federation of India (SFI)  and its youth wing Democratic Youth  Federation of India (DYFI). The  law and order situation in the State is similar to that 1959 when the central Government dismissed the first EMS Namboodiripad Government for breakdown  of  law and order position.

                LDF Government’s justification that the financial stringency was due to squeezing of finance  from the Centre was not given heed by any body and the common man finds  faults with the Government for failure  of paying monthly salaries and pension at least to the retired government servants.

                Congress  finds it easy  to convert the financial stringency  and breakdown  of  law   and order position  as votes  in favour of UDF. According  to  UDF camp workers, Muraleedharan has improved a lot and qualified to be electoral funambulist  in Politics like his father.

                BJP candidate  pinning  his hope  of winning  this time from Thrissur  Lok Sabha constituency  and open the account in the 18th Lok Sabha from Kerala, a long  cherished  wish  of BJP.

                In the last Lok  Sabha elections   Suresh  Gopi   scored   2,93,822  votes which was quite  unexpected of the BJP. Last Lok Sabha elections, Suresh  Gopi  was nominated by the BJP at the eleventh hour  and had sufficient time and machinery  to make the workers fully  utilized. BJP  is sure of winning  the seat this time as the worked had started election work well  in advance.

                The Prime Minister   Narendra Damodar  Modi  had visit Thrissur on January 03 and inaugurated a women convention with a view to seeking support of women voters.   On January middly, the Prime  Minister  Modi  had participated in Suresh Gopi’s daughter’s marrigare at Guruvayur temple and blessed the couple.

                It  is understood from BJP  sources   that the Prime Minister would visit again Thrissur as part of canvassing votes for Suresh Gopi.

                The Christian electorate in the constituency a determining  factor   in winning the elections.   They   constituted  24.5  per  cent  of the electorate  .

                The Union Home Minister  Mr  Amit  Shah  had met two times the Catholic Archbishop  of Thrissur with a view to seeking  his support of BJP.  The Archbishop  of  Thrissur is the President of  Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), the apex body of the Catholics in India.

                Suresh  Gopi  has personally  made his best efforts to   seek  the support of  Christian electorate in the constituency.  He  had offered a crown  to the deity of  Thrissur Lourdes Cathedral

The main church  of the archdiocese.  The Virgin Mary (Mother  of  Jesus)  had been dedicated to the Lourdes Cathedral  here in sweet  memory  of her  apparition to some shepherd  children at Lourde (France) several years ago. 

                Though  a controversy  erupted in Gopi’s offering a crown to the deity of  Lourdes  Cathedral,  it  had no desired result of his opponents and its publicity  did not  last long .

                Suresh Gopi  publicly  announced  in the thick of controversy whether the crown was gold or copper, that he would offer gold worth ten lakh  rupees to the deity  of the Cathedral, the Madonna If he  won the Lok  Sabha election from Thrissur Constituency  this time. 

                A section of Christian  electorate  finds that it is the lack  of faith in the Madonna  for Gopi  that he offered  a conditional corban of rupees  ten lakh worth gold.    They said that ten lakh rupees is just pea nuts for a cine actor like Suresh Gopi  and hence they expressed the pious that  Suresh  would present  gold worth ten lakh rupees to Lourdes Cathedra before the eletionsonApril 26. 

                The supporters of the BJP  express the hope that BJP is not untouchable to Christians and congress workers as earlier.  Ak  Antony’s son and Karunakaran’s  daughter also joined BJP .

                Moreover,  the  policy  of the Church is to  support  the  ruling dispensation. The Church in Indian was in support of Britian, when that country ruled India for about two centuries.    The Church was against Indian national  Congress.  Mahatma Gandhi was the “anti-Christ” to the Christians then. When Congrees  party came into  power, Church  unconditionally  supported Congress. 

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