The CPM has been waiting for the arrival of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on August 24 to step up the campaign of its candidate Jaick C Thomas. Till now, Jaick's campaign was largely subdued, focusing more on silent house visits and family meetings done without much fanfare.
From August 25 onwards, after Pinarayi's twin address at Puthuppally and Ayarkkunnam on August 24, Jaick's vehicle processions will begin. Most of the ministers are in the constituency and the CPM would hold 'development gatherings' across the constituency to sell its development slogan.
In comparison, the UDF campaign is far ahead, which is quite a surprise given Congress's traditional tendency to start late.
This time, unlike during other elections, there was clarity about the candidate. No one in the party seemed to be in doubt about Oommen Chandy's replacement, especially after the unprecedented outpouring of grief in the wake of the former Chief Minister's death.
For a change, it was the LDF that was initially hesitant about the candidate they should pick. The CPM did explore the possibility of luring a popular local Congress leader, a rebel of sorts, who was once close to Oommen Chandy. The strategy was discussed threadbare but was dumped considering its boomerang potential.
Jaick, who had dramatically closed the gap with Oommen Chandy, then became the natural choice.
This initial vacillation in the CPM camp gave the Congress a rare head start in electioneering. The Chandy Oommen camp has already carried out house visits, and vehicle processions are already in an advanced stage. At the moment, Chandy Oommen is the most visible candidate.
The CPM camp, however, is not worried. "Our party has always worked according to a plan," said Reji Zachariah, the CPM leader who lost to Chandy in 1996 by a margin close to Jaick's in 2021 (10,155 votes). "A massive road show was conducted the day M V Govindan Master declared Jaick's candidacy (August 12). But after that we began house visits," Reji Zachariah said.
During this period, the party was holding talks with various community leaders and influential families, addressing specific community issues. The concerns of the Jacobite Church, which feels a bit let down after the LDF government refused to go ahead with the Kerala Church (Properties and Institutions) Bill, was one of them. The Jacobites had pushed for a political solution to end its raging property dispute with the Orthodox faction.
Nairs too are a sizable segment in Puthuppally and the CPM is eager to put to rest any lingering suspicions in the community about its approach to faith after Speaker A N Shamseer's remarks regarding Lord Ganesha and myth. Targeted visits to Nair families have been carried out in the hope that even the last remaining embers of disapproval against the CPM could be snuffed out.
However, the CPM focus this time is on development and what the LDF had done differently on the ground after the 2020 local body elections that saw the CPM gain the upper hand in Puthuppally. The party strongly believes that development is the only slogan that could neutralise the Oommen Chandy factor.
The Chief Minister, during his stump speeches, is expected to aggressively sell the CPM's development agenda. At least till the by-elections are over, the CPM will stick to its strategy of 'purposeful silence' to combat the charges of ill-gotten wealth against Veena Vijayan.
The party will recycle the same old counter that all of this is part of a conspiracy by the Centre to discredit the CPM. The party hopes that like in the past, this political defence would continue to insulate the party from charges of graft.
