Thiruvananthapuram: The campaign for the upcoming assembly by-election at Puthuppally is peaking and in the fray are 37-year-old Chandy Oommen from the Congress, 32-year-old CPI-M youth leader Jaick C. Thomas and BJP leader Lijin Lal and four others.
The election was caused by the demise of sitting legislator and two time former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on July 18. He represented the constituency in Kottayam district continuously from 1970 till July 18, when he passed away.
Early this month when the announcement that the by-election will be held on September 5 was made, all were caught unawares as no one expected it would be held so soon.
Counting of votes will take place on September 8 and the winner will be sworn in on September 11 when the assembly session will resume.
Taking the pole position was the Congress when it took only a few hours to announce that Chandy’ s son Chandy Oommen would be its candidate.
It took a few days for the CPI-M to announce its candidate and it was not a surprise when the party decided to give a third successive chance to youth leader Jaick C.Thomas who contested against Chandy in the 2011 and 2016 polls.
The BJP has fielded Lijin Lal who came third in the 2016 assembly polls from the nearby constituency of Kaduthuruthy.
The CPI-M too decided to play the sympathy card when it was pointed out by veteran party legislator and former state minister M.M.Mani that Thomas also will be able to garner sympathy.
“He has contested from here twice and this is the third time in a row and hence a sympathy factor might work for him,” said Mani.
Meanwhile, the Congress has made it clear that it has no doubts about the outcome and the only thing is the margin of victory.
And to ensure that they come out victorious with the highest ever victory margin Puthuppally has seen, the Congress is leaving nothing to chance. All the party big guns are out in the blazing sun seeking a vote in the name of what all the late Oommen Chandy has done and the way he conducted himself for the past 53 years.
With just three days left for the campaigning to end, A.K.Antony, the long standing close aide of Chandy is arriving and so is the latest CWC member Shashi Tharoor.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has completed two days of campaigning and is slated to pay one more visit.
The BJP also had two Union ministers, both Malayalees, V.Muraleedharan and Rajiv Chandrasekhar campaigning in Puthuppally.
–IANS