Keralas Duplicate Town is offering Marxism in triplicate. Once known for its grey market of pirated and duplicated goods,Kunnamkulam has three red candidates including the two principal rivals from the Left and Congress-led fronts. The third belongs to a recent breakaway group from CPM. If you are not a BJP voter,you are stuck with comrade clones. Take a closer look and youll pick C P John, assures a local Congress leader campaigning for the partys minor ally. We fielded a smart comrade to counter the sitting Marxist MLA on his own terms. Comrade John and his leader M V Raghavan must have been extra smart to have survived for a good quarter-century after what they did in 1986. Back then when no comrade had life after the CPM,they left the party to found the Communist Marxist Party (CMP). Both had plenty to lose. Raghavan was right at the top in the Marxist stronghold in North Kerala and John was just a notch away from heading the SFI nationally. As with things Marxian,it is not clear whether the duos exit was prompted by policy or personality factors. In any case,they made a dramatic switch to the rival Congress front and have since stayed on to counter the Marxists on their own terms. In 10 out of these 25 years Raghavan was in the state cabinet and for five years John was a member of the State Planning Board. Between them they built up a network of some 400 cooperative units that feed the party,run structurally like a small-scale CPM. John says communists are like seawater fish. Even while we are with the freshwater Congress,we need a little salt to function. The saline puddles scattered across the state arent,however,big enough to add up electorally. To win an Assembly seat,the CMP needs solid help from the main Congress ally and much strategising. The last part has been Johns strength,evident in the earlier poll campaigns he ran for Raghavan. Now pushing seventy and in indifferent health,the leader is fighting a lonely battle elsewhere in the state in Nemmara and John can hardly take his eyes off his own constituency. More,he must keep a third eye on shifty Congress votes. At 53,back in his hometown on his electoral debut,Johns smartest investment is his statewide TV presence. He has been the most visible face of the Congress front on TV debates ranging from political to budgetary and developmental. And much of Campaign 2011 is happening on TV. As he hops from corner to street corner in Kunnamkulam,you see voters,mostly women,connect to him remarkably for a first timer. As the days campaign closes,a bearded biker stops to greet the candidate he has only met on Facebook. If there is a TV 2 Twitter Vote Bank,it goes to John.
