Vadakara 'twist' and Thrissur 'battle royale': competition heats up ahead of LS polls

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress workers are confounded by the late twist in plans after the party dropped the earlier plan to field sitting MPs in crucial constituencies. T N Prathapan, who even started campaigning in Thrissur had to give away his seat to K Muraleedharan in Thrissur while incumbent MLA Shafi Parambil filed the void in Vadakara in one surprising move. In Thrissur, it will be a three-way fight while in Vadakara, incumbent MLAs of Congress and CPM will engage in a neck-to-neck battle to win a ticket to Delhi.

Muraleedharan, who defeated P. Jayarajan by 844663 votes in Vadakara last time, had secured 49.81 per cent votes. This time, LDF upped the ante by fielding popular candidate K K Shailaja in a bid to wrest back control of the erstwhile communist bastion. Muraleedharan was first named the candidate in Vadakara and at the time the odds were favouring CPM by a large margin. But, unexpectedly came Shafi thus putting into muddle the erstwhile calculations of CPM in Vadakara. BJP which had just an 8% vote share in Vadakara will try to double the figure in this election.

With Muraleedharan leaving Vadakara, the stage is set for a three-way war in Thrissur. Last time, Suresh Gopi got 28 per cent of the votes. BJP is working hard to double the vote percentage and thus make the lotus bloom in Thrissur. In 2019, TN Prathapan secured 39.83 per cent votes while CPI came second with 30.85 per cent.

CPM will try to win back the 11 % vote it lost during the last election and Muraleedharan on the other side will have to win in Thrissur to settle scores for his defeat in the same district back in 1998, and thus prove that Karunakaran's political legacy belongs to him, not to Padmaja.