In the battle-ground turf of Kerala Congress in central Kerala, an unusual villain has emerged to scare major political fronts just days ahead of voting.
Thodupuzha, where a prestigious tussle is on between the Joseph and Mani groups of Kerala Congress, the villain is coronavirus.
As Kerala Congress chairman P J Joseph resumed election campaign in the constituency after recovering from COVID-19, his rival KC (M) candidate K I Antony went to quarantine after testing positive on March 29.
Voting is on April 6 and campaign ends on April 4.
Joseph, who is seeking a 10th term as a legislator, resumed his election campaign with a major convention attended by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at Thodupuzha recently.
After he was contracted COVID-19 in the last week of February, Joseph had to abstain from the campaign for several weeks.
As it is difficult to cover the entire constituency, Joseph now focuses on addressing panchayat-level conventions.
While Joseph is trying to make up for the lost days by attending public meetings, Antony, who is now on home quarantine, is exploring online options for campaign.
“We have almost completed the constituency tour by the time he contracted the disease,” said Jayakrishnan Puthiyedath, KC (M) district general secretary and election committee vice president.
Jayakrishnan said that the candidate is joining family conventions through video conferencing. “He is contacting people over the phone as he is free now. He is also perfectly fine and can manage the campaign from home,” Jayakrishnan said. He maintains the KC(M) has an edge as it could cover all the regions.
Apart from issues like the Kerala Congress split and development, COVID too cropped up as a poll issue.
The UDF camp alleged that the LDF tried to spread rumours about the health of Joseph during his campaigns.
“The LDF alleged that Joseph sir’s condition was serious and he was in ICU. We issued a press statement that anybody can fall sick and it was inappropriate to spread allegations on his health condition,” said a source close to Joseph.
The UDF camp, which is sticking on to traditional modes of campaign, is confident that Joseph would surpass his last year’s majority.
Antony is expected to cast his vote after completing quarantine.
“If he does not recover, we will explore other options like postal vote,” said Jayakrishnan. Incidentally, Antony had received the first dose of vaccination 15 days before he tested positive.
“Because he was already vaccinated, he was tested negative in the Antigen test. He tested positive when an RT-PCR test was conducted. He has no major symptoms,” said Jayakrishnan.
Joseph,78, had to undergo treatment at a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram even after testing negative for Covid.
Apart from candidates, several party workers too have tested Coronavirus positive.
As both LDF and UDF are battling COVID-19, Yuva Morcha state general secretary P Shyam Raj, who is contesting as NDA candidate, is active with door-to-door campaigns and public conventions.
(Jisha Surya is an independent journalist based in Thiruvananthapuram.)
