Pala goes to vote on September 23. The results will be declared on September 27. (Express Photo by Vishnu Varma)Kerala’s Pala Assembly seat, which fell vacant after Kerala Congress (M) veteran K M Mani died in April, went to polls on Monday and recorded a 71.41 per cent turnout. The counting of votes would be held on Friday.
The seat was represented by Mani for the the last 54 years. The outcome of the bypoll would be decide not only the fate of UDF ally Kerala Congress (M), but also the future of politics in central Kerala, where both LDF and NDA have been reaching out to the regional party which has a support base among Christians.
KC (M) has fielded Mani loyalist Jose Tom and he is up against LDF candidate and NCP leader Mani C Kappan and BJP’s Kottayam district president N Hari.
However, the KC(M) candidate contested the poll as a UDF-backed Independent owing to a conflict between Mani’s son and Rajya Sabha MP Jose K Mani and KC (M) working president P J Joseph. Apparently irked over Jose K Man’s choice of the candidate, Joseph refused to allow Tom to contest on the party’s official symbol.
Cracks in the party were also evident on polling day. Joseph loyalist Joy Abraham, also a Rajya Sabha MP, said Mani’s political legacy was not his family’s private property. “The party is now guided by the immature leadership of Mani’s son Jose K Mani. Voters are enlightened. That would reflect in the voting,’’ he said.
Senior Congress leader and former chief minister Oommen Chandy said Abraham’s comments were unfortunate and added that a UDF victory was certain.
With Mani dominating central Kerala’s Christian politics for several decades, the UDF had not faced a tough political test so far. Mani’s victories were largely attributed to his personal charisma and development initiatives in the constituency. The verdict of this bypoll would tell whether Pala is still under the shadow of Mani’s politics.
For the ruling CPM, the bypoll is the first test after the poor show in the Lok Sabha elections. Pala has a considerable chunk of upper caste Hindu Nair voters, which had opposed the government’s efforts to implement the Supreme Court verdict allowing entry of women of all ages to the Sabarimala temple. It remains to be seen how Hindu voters in the constituency would react, especially as the bypoll comes close on the heels of the CPM’s admission that the Sabarimala issue influenced the voters during the Lok Sabha polls. The LDF did not raise the issue in the campaign in the run-up to the bypoll.
