Thiruvananthapuram: It was after LDF had almost finalized candidates and launched its campaign for the local-body election that CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan took a long leave from the post on medical grounds. There were political reasons, fuelled by the arrest of his son Bineesh Kodiyeri in connection with a money-laundering case, as well behind the surprise exit of the senior leader from the election front.
While Kodiyeri took a break amid the raging criticism from within and outside the party, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan decided to weather the storm. Vijayan faced allegations too, but, not on a personal level. His office was on the hit list of Enforcement Directorate and CBI. After arresting his former principal secretary, M Sivasankar, the central agencies had cast the net for additional PS C M Raveendran who is a close confidant of the CM. Using Covid-19 as a shield, Raveendran skipped ED interrogation thrice and ensured that his party didn’t suffer a setback in his name in the election.
In the state secretariat and state committee meetings held to discuss poll preparation, CPM senior leadership stressed the need to focus the campaign on the development and social-security initiatives undertaken by the government. The smart handling of crises -- from floods to Covid-19 -- was highlighted. The decision to provide monthly grocery kits free of cost to all families and increase welfare pensions, and provide them without arrears, also played a major role in LDF’s election performance. Drawing confidence from the feedback from the grassroots, both Pinarayi and CPM acting secretary A Vijayaraghavan declared that the election will be a referendum on the state government, too.
CPM, which was taken aback when CBI launched a probe into the Life Mission projects, was on the offensive when CAG took on KIIFB by listing out faults in the audit report. Finance minister T M Thomas Isaac, who dared to break precedents, converted the crisis into an occasion to debate the relevance and necessity of KIIFB. From funding primary health centres, where one can now get treatment at par with private hospitals, to funding the smart classrooms in government schools, KIIFB had become integral to the daily lives of Malayalis.
The question of whether we need to close KIIFB or whether the opposition leader is bold enough to say no to KIIFB-funded activities in his constituency echoed through online and offline platforms during the campaign. In the final phase, when UDF convener M M Hassan announced that UDF will dismantle Life Mission if elected to power, social media cells of LDF worked overtime to propagate the sound bite as far and wide as possible. According to LDF leaders that was the final nail in the UDF coffin.
Throughout the campaign, LDF smartly created a binary pattern. All who criticized the Nava Kerala Mission and its financier KIIFB were branded ‘forces working against the interests of the state’. By that scale, opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala and other UDF leaders who had sent petitions to the prime minister, governor and central ministers pointing out the anomalies in the conduct of these organizations were branded ‘anti-state elements.’
Vijayaraghavan said the poll outcome showed that people had rejected the 'false campaign' against the party and the chief minister. “Some tried to create controversies out of various allegations. The central probe agencies tried to derail the day-to-day governance of the state. Kerala has never seen such poisonous campaigning ever. But people rejected all those and stood by the government,” he said.
LDF also did well in candidate selection. The prominence accorded to young and women candidates was visible in almost all local bodies. With campaigning taking on a new dimension, in a Covid-19 world, these very young candidates took early advantage by employing social-media platforms effectively.