Thrikkakara bypolls: History beckons rival fronts

Kochi, May 13 (SocialNews.XYZ) In the upcoming crucial bypolls to the Thrikkakara Assembly constituency, history shows that the seat favours both the traditional and the rival political fronts.

The Congress-led UDF has fielded Uma Thomas, widow of two-time Thrikkakara MLA P.T. Thomas, who passed away December last year.

The CPI-M has brought in young interventional cardiologist Joe Joseph, while the BJP has asked senior leader A.N. Radhakrishnan to fight.

Thrikkakara seat was carved out from the erstwhile Tripunithura constituency when the state went in for delimitation of the Assembly constituency in 2011.

At the 2011 polls, Congress leader Benny Behanan won an easy victory and in 2016 and 2021 P.T. Thomas too won with ease and increased his margin in 2021.

After Thomas passed away in 2021, it was more or less clear that his widow Uma Thomas would be the apt candidate and the party took just a few hours after the announcement of the date of polls -- May 31 -- to announce Uma Thomas's name.

The Congress-led UDF is claiming to be in a pole position because history shows that whenever a widow of a legislator is fielded, she wins because of the sympathy factor.

It was in 1986, for the first time when a widow of a sitting legislator was fielded. After Sunny Panavelil, a top leader of the Congress-S, an ally of the CPI-M led Left passed away in 1985, his widow Rachel Sunny Panavelil was fielded and she won.

Then in 2003, Mammen Mathai, senior leader of the Kerala Congress (Mani) passed away and the party fielded his widow Elizabeth Mammen Mathai, who won the by-election to the Thiruvalla constituency on December 1, 2003.

Hence, the Congress party and the UDF are hoping that the Thrikkakara electorate will hand over an easy victory to Uma.

But the CPI-M has come out with a different proposition and former legislator M. Swaraj, who is overseeing the Thrikkakara by-election for his party, said that the history showed that they have been able to claw back in the traditional constituencies where the Congress-led UDF candidate had won.

"At the Vatiyoorkavu Assembly constituency (Thiruvananthapuram district), where we had finished third at the 2016 Assembly polls, we had an easy victory when the by-election was held in 2019. Likewise at the Konni constituency (Pathanamthitta district), which was a Congress bastion, our candidate won the seat when a bypoll was held there in 2019. So, we are absolutely confident of repeating that in Thrikkakar also. We will wrest the seat," said Swaraj.

With the election campaigning now peaking after the arrival of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan from the US where he underwent medical treatment, the traditional rival fronts are fighting it out and both are hoping for the history to repeat itself.

Source: IANS