Thiruvananthapuram: Local body polls often make a mockery of sworn political affiliations and the poll fray for corporation election has been no different.
While a few candidates made last-minute switch to the other end, some of the fronts made calculated moves to sense evident rancour in the opposite camp and pouch candidates with winning potential. For others, a contest against a party for which they had once worked so hard would be slightly emotional.
P Syamkumar, who is the UDF candidate at Kuravankonam, had an uneasy time in the council when he was part of LDF ruling council and headed the tax appeal standing committee in 2010. When RSP allied with Congress in 2014, RSP councillors in Kollam corporation and Paravur municipality shifted their seats to the UDF camp, clearly declaring their inclination.
Syamkumar however continued as the head of tax appeal committee and although he distanced himself from LDF meetings, he continued to sit among LDF councillors till the end of council tenure.
LDF candidates at Vettucaud, Manikyavilakom and Nalanchira were once active UDF workers. At Vettucaud, LDF cashed in on the dissent over seat sharing and placed Sabu Thomas as the candidate. While Congress was busy deciding group equations, LDF acted quickly to bring Thomas to their hold.
Manikyavilakom, where LDF ally INL twice declared candidate and cancelled eventually, settled for former UDF man P M Basheer. The choice was the byproduct of an open rift over the choice of Congress candidate at Manikyavilakom. Johnson Joseph, who is contesting for the sixth term as a councillor in the corporation, faces LDF candidate Thomas who had once sided with him as a Congress worker.
Nedumom Mohan, who had long been a Congress man and won as UDF candidate from Thiruvallom, now emerges as the BJP candidate at Vellar. Mohan’s switch was a consequence of a fall out with the party that was brewing for some time. LDF candidate at Palkulangara S Vijayakumari had won as BJP candidate from Palakulangara ward in 2015. She was suspended from BJP party membership in August after she switched to CPM and took part in an anti-Union government protest taken out by CPM.
There are a few candidates who had long made the switch and now face the election. Sheela Ramani, who is the UDF candidate at Nanthencode, had once been an LDF worker and it is this reason that has resulted in a strong rebel candidate at Nanthencode. Muttathara Soman, who is the UDF candidate at Muttathara, had once been an LDF councillor.
Those associated with local body polls say that often last minute switches would not fetch the benefits they hope for. In 2015 when UDF denied a seat for Mujeeb Rahman at Kamaleswaram, he moved over to LDF. The result was that UDF lost a sitting seat as its councillor M B Resmi was pushed to third spot while Rahman emerged second. While Resmi and Rahman together polled nearly 2,800 votes, BJP candidate V Giri who emerged victorious polled 1,974 votes. “Sometimes parties genuinely leave people disgruntled. You work so hard for the party and when it comes to elections, you get ignored. Some take it in their stride while some take extreme step which is moving over to party which will accept you,” says a former councillor.