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Journalism of Courage
By fielding cardiologist Dr Jo Joseph as its candidate for the by-election to Thrikkakara Assembly constituency in Ernakulam district in Kerala, the ruling CPI(M) has entrusted him with the formidable task of wresting the seat from the principal Opposition Congress as it seeks to increase the party-led Left Democratic Front (LDF)’s tally to 100 in the 140-member state Assembly.
Soon after the CPM announced his candidature for the May 31 bypoll Thursday, the 43-year-old cardiologist, who is all set for his electoral debut, said he has all along been a “Left fellow- traveller”, adding “I am from a Communist family’’.
During the Assembly polls last year, Dr Joseph had campaigned for then LDF candidate orthopaedician J Jacob in Thrikkakara seat. In a video clip of his campaign speech, which has surfaced now, he says the LDF would score century in the election. Incidentally, the onus on taking the LDF tally to 100 is on him now, a year later.
Addressing media persons at the Catholic Church-run Lisie Hospital in Kochi, where he works, Dr Joseph, who belongs to the Catholic community, denied the charge that he is a nominee of the Church in the Thrikkakara bypoll. “I work at a Church-run institution, but that does not mean I am a Church nominee. I have always been with the Left. I have a clear political stand and political work is not about holding a party flag. Doctor’s profession is also a public service like politics,’’ he said, flanked by Catholic priests and CPI(M) leaders.
Echoing his views, the hospital director, Fr Paul Karedan, said, “The hospital is consigning the service of the doctor to society at large.’’
The CPI(M) did not lose any time in projecting Joseph as a “doctor with a human touch”, highlighting that as a cardiologist he has given a new lease of life to many heart patients and that he had gone out of his way to help people during the Covid pandemic and the 2018 floods in the state.
Kerala CPI(M) stalwart and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan posted an image of the cardiologist holding an ice box containing a harvested heart that was air-flown from Thiruvananthapuram from Kochi in May 2020.
In his decade-long career as a cardiologist, Joseph has been part of a team of doctors that conducted over two dozen heart transplant surgeries.
His nomination as its Thrikkakara seat candidate is a throwback to the Marxist party’s old tactic of fielding non-politicians and professionals in such Congress strongholds where minority communities hold sway. Joseph was never part of the CPI(M) cadre, but has been associated with the pro-Left doctors’ body, Progressive Doctors Forum.
The CPI(M) zeroed in on the cardiologist after actively considering the candidature of its Ernakulam district committee member KS Arun Kumar, with the party workers even painting the latter’s name on roadside walls as part of the bypoll campaign.
By fielding a Catholic doctor from Thrikkakara and having him and some Catholic priests in a single photo frame soon after declaring his candidature, the CPI(M) signalled its intent to woo voters from the influential community in the constituency. The Congress’s few senior Christian faces in Ernakulam, including ex-Union minister K V Thomas, have already spelt trouble for the party.
Joseph’s principal rival in the fray is the Congress’s candidate Uma Thomas, widow of P T Thomas, the two-time MLA whose death last year necessitated the bypoll.
The by-election is going to be crucial for the CPI(M) as the party has declared it will be a referendum on the Vijayan government’s proposed semi-high-speed rail corridor project, called SilverLine, which has been facing opposition from a section of local people. The Congress has also said that the SilverLine project, which would pass through Thrikkakara, would be its key plank in the bypoll.
