Even as the high-decibel campaigning in Puthupally has switched to a slow note with the Onam festivities hitting a crescendo, electioneering has continued to pick up pace here with the candidates reaching out to the maximum number of voters amidst the holidays. After a brief pause, Chandy Oommen, the candidate fielded by the United Democratic Front, on Monday resumed his campaign in Manarcad panchayat. The Congress-led coalition, however, will once again cease its public campaigning for the next three days till August 31. At the same time, it will continue with the squad works and door-to-door canvassing during the period. Giving buoyancy to its poll-campaigns, top Congress leaders including A.K. Antony, Shashi Tharoor and Tariq Anwar etc will be visiting the assembly constituency over the next few days. Mr.Oommen, the younger son of the late Oommen Chandy, counts on the image of his father plus the raging allegations of various scams against the State government to turn things to his advantage. Jaick C. Thomas, the candidate fielded by the Left Democratic Front, too spends the day meeting the voters in their houses. Having embarked on a largely silent campaign till the Onam festivities are over, the coalition is set to scale up the intensity with a scheduled visit of the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on August 30. This will be followed by a resumption of the high-decibel campaign tour and family meet-ups, besides election conventions to be addressed by the LDF Ministers. The Chief Minister will be addressing the election convention at six locations on August 30 and September 1. The LDF, which regards the by-election as the first real chance to breach the Congress bastion, has already commenced its second lap of campaigning in the district. While its candidate has been busy meeting the individual voters, the party is making the most of its coalition machinery to expand the electioneering works. For the National Democratic Alliance, various State level leaders of the BJP including its State unit president K.Surendran and its national general secretary Radha Mohandas Agarwal have been camping here to coordinate the pre-election strategies for G.Lijin Lal.
According to the BJP camp, a few more national level leaders including Prakash Javadekar are set to join the canvassing in the coming days. At the grass root level, the party coordinates with the parent organization- the RSS, to reach out to the maximum number of voters through door-to-door campaigning.
