Banyan Chettan's restaurant to NSS; campaigning heats up in Puthuppally

KOTTAYAM: Jaick C Thomas started fresh on Sunday morning with visits to popular community leaders and other cultural icons. Chandy Oommen meanwhile diverged from usual such visits but held small meetings with his father’s close associates and other friends. Oommen even participated in marriage functions happening in the Puthuppally constituency. Both the LDF and UDF candidates in Puthuppally made the best use of Sunday by bolstering their election campaigning.

Jaick started his campaigning exactly at 8 pm on Sunday from his residence in Manarcad and traveled to Kavumpadi for meeting the public. This is the same panchayath that voted in favor of Jaick over veteran Oommen Chandy in the last election. It was rather surprising for onlookers as Jaick knew every resident in the panchayat and was exuding confidence all over.Jaick even reached the NSS headquarters at Perunna along with Minister V. N. Vasavan around 9.30 a.m. and held a meeting with General Secretary G. Sukumaran Nair for a quarter of an hour. From there, Jaick traveled for a meeting with the Catholic Baselios Marthoma Mathews III at the Orthodox Church headquarters.

On another note, Chandy's campaign started in deference to god by attending a mass on Sunday at Puthuppally church. After praying at his father Oommen Chandy's grave, he went straight to Akalakunnam Panchayat. Along with house-to-house campaigning, Chandy also took time to seek blessings from close associates of his father. In Lakkattoor panchayat, Chandy took a break to enjoy some snacks from the famous 'Banyan Chettan’s' teashop.