Three-way cliffhanger in Kerala capital: Congress veteran on comeback trail faces ‘Mayor bro’ test, state’s first woman IPS officer
In Vattiyoorkavu, a Nair bastion, the outcome will hinge on the intricate caste and commmunity equations.
K Muraleedharan, leading the Congress charge in Vattiyoorkavu, is up against incumbent MLA V K Prasanth of LDF, a popular figure, and R Sreelekha, who served as DGP (fire and rescue). Exxpress photo by Sandip G A fading heavyweight on a comeback trail to reclaim his old territory and lost sway, a populist incumbent riding on development wave, and a former head of state police with numerous firsts to her name have kept the Vattiyoorkavu Assembly seat in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram on a knife’s edge ahead of polling on April 9.
K Muraleedharan of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), V K Prasanth of the Left Democratic Front (LDF), and NDA’s R Sreelekha are bunched in a rare down-to-the-wire, three-way tussle that hinges on fine margins, complex caste equations and perhaps the voters’ mood and whims on the election day. It appears to be difficult to decide an outright favourite.
The constituency brims with uneasy expectations. In the final stretch of campaigning, all the parties enthusiastically hit the ground running. Jeeps and SUVs whirr by, listing achievements and making promises, hurling verbal jabs at their adversaries. It constitutes much of Thiruvananthapuram’s urban landscape, and precisely for this reason there is a vast cross-section of people and what the locals call those with “floating loyalties”.
T Sasikumar, part of the LDF entourage, says the nature of elections here have been unpredictable, even though the popularity of former Mayor Prasanth, fondly called “Mayor Bro”, remains undimmed. “He remains the favourite, but the contest will be stiffer than last time,” says the 65-year-old, who has watched the fickle fluctuations of the elections here.
In 2021, Prasanth retained the turf he had claimed in the 2019 by-elections by a staggering margin of 22,000 votes, bagging 44.4% of the 1,37,636-strong electorate. But former MP Muraleedharan’s return to the seat he won twice but had to relinquish after winning the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 has complicated and altered the dynamics here. The son of late Congress talisman K Karunakaran, Muraleedharan enjoys immense popularity. “It’s part of my heart. Some of my favourite temples, which I visit multiple times a year, are here. I have friends and a lot of people who love me here. Here, it is only a question of who comes second,” he says at a roadshow.
However, the numbers tell a different story for the UDF. From garnering 56,531 votes in 2011, Muraleedharan’s tally dropped to 35,655 in 2021. On the contrary, the NDA’s votes have dramatically shot up, from a meagre 13,494 in 2011 to 39,596, a three-fold spike, in 2021. Besides, it won half of 24 wards in Thiruvananthapuram in last year’s civic body polls.
How BJP is placed
The BJP flags flutter from the roofs of shops and the railing of sidewalks. Here, voters talk of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma and recall that they saw him during the rally last week. But the remoteness of Sreelekha, Kerala’s first woman IPS officer and former DGP (fire and rescue) in the early phases of the campaign, and her nature of getting easily offended could disrupt the party’s momentum. “The councillors have been working really hard, but I am not sure whether she is a popular choice. If the party wins, it’s a triumph of the Hindutva ideology and not her personality,” says Aravindakshan Nair, a local and self-proclaimed “neutral”.
Rumours swirl that several prominent BJP leaders coveted the berth. The seat reportedly was a compromise of sorts for not crowning Sreelekha as the mayor after the local body polls. Another instance of her moodiness came to light when she stormed out of an election programme attended virtually by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar after he did not mention her during his speech.
Sreelekha, though, is a hit among women voters. “She is an inspiration for a lot of young women in the state. She is approachable and is minister material,” says S Rajalakshmi, a retired government employee.
While both the UDF and the NDA would like to capitalise on the considerable traction and mileage that the Sabarimala gold theft case has garnered, the intricate caste equation makes the contest exciting.
Caste math
Vattiyoorkavu is a Nair bastion, with the community constituting nearly 45% of the population. The Nair Service Society (NSS) aligned with the CPI(M) last time, though Prasanth hails from the Ezhava OBC community. In the four elections since the constituency came into existence, the UDF and the NDA have never fielded a non-Nair candidate. The pattern continues this time as well. “But the 2019 and 2021 elections have shown that we can rise above caste politics,” says Sasikumar.
Muraleedharan’s close ties with the NSS, as was the case with Karunakaran, could tilt the pendulum in his favour. But the BJP wields influence in the community here. It was a strong base of the now-defunct National Democratic Party, the political arm of the NSS.
Muslims (Left-leaning) and Christians (largely Congress supporters) comprise nearly one-fourth of the voters, while the Ezhava (CPM supporters) and Dalit groups form a significant, and decisive, proportion.
There is an air of volatility, as always. The polls have seen jaw-dropping fluctuations. From third in 2016, the LDF has soared to pole position, while the UDF has sunk to third. Muraleedharan is certain he will wrest the constituency from the “Mayor Bro’s” clutches. Sreelekha and her industrious brigade say they will fight till the end. And the end could be one of fine margins.
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