Malappuram: As public campaigning for the bypoll came to a close in Nilambur on Tuesday, the LDF and UDF showcased sharply contrasting styles -- and nowhere was this more evident than in the campaign trails of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Congress leader and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi.

On Sunday evening, Priyanka Gandhi's roadshow from Pothukallu rolled into Nilambur bus stand around 7 pm -- a full three hours behind schedule. Yet, people stood through a downpour and a string of speeches by UDF leaders like M M Hassan. There was no marquee overhead -- just umbrellas and patience.

By the time Priyanka arrived, the bus stand was packed. People had climbed onto balconies and terraces of old shops that ring the square. She stepped onto the campaign truck, turned to the crowd, and opened in almost flawless Malayalam: "Ee mazhayettum evide ethiya ellavarkkum ente namaskaaram…" (My greetings to all of you who turned up despite the rain.) The crowd erupted.

"You’ve waited since 3 pm, and it’s been raining all day. First, I want to say a big, big thank you. I don’t take this support lightly," she said.

At Moothedam, while Priyanka was speaking, UDF candidate Aryadan Shoukath gently nudged her, signalling her to face a camera to the left. "It’s okay. I’m talking to the people. The videographers can catch me from there," she said with a smile.

Earlier that day, Pinarayi Vijayan was also late -- by an hour -- for his rally at Pothukallu. The pandal, with over 1,000 seats, was overflowing. Many stood outside, umbrellas aloft. "Brothers and sisters, we are in the final leg of the byelection campaign," he began, framing the bypoll as the fallout of "betrayal" -- a reference to the resignation of Left-backed independent MLA P V Anvar.

He launched into a critique of the Congress and the Muslim League for accepting support from Jamaat-e-Islami. But unlike Priyanka, Pinarayi made no mention of the weather or acknowledged those waiting. He read from a prepared text, reeling off achievements: transforming school infrastructure with a ₹5,000-crore investment, attracting  ₹2 lakh crore in investments, and a promise that Kerala will become India’s first state with zero extreme poverty by November 1.

He spoke about Gaza, Iran, and Israel, and accused the BJP of siding with Israel, a path, he said, laid by the Congress. He also blamed the Congress for introducing the Wildlife Protection Act in 1972, linking it to Kerala's escalating human-animal conflict.

He claimed that market interventions by his government had kept inflation in Kerala the lowest in the country. However, according to April’s Consumer Price Index, Kerala recorded the highest retail inflation rate in India at 5.94%, well above the national average. Telangana, meanwhile, had the lowest at 1.26%.

What stood out most, however, was that he wasn’t speaking to the people -- he was reading to them.

ASHA workers, Adivasis and people ignored
Priyanka, on the other hand, raised issues absent from Pinarayi's speech. She brought up the plight of ASHA workers, who’ve been protesting outside the Secretariat since February 10. They are demanding a raise in their monthly honorarium. "What’s wrong with their demand?" she asked. "They work 24/7, tirelessly. Yet, their pleas fall on deaf ears."

On the human-wildlife conflict, she said that in her seven months as Wayanad MP, she had visited seven homes where a family member had been killed in wild animal attacks. "Governments cannot hide behind laws to escape their responsibility," she said.

Speaking at the same pandal in Pothukallu where Pinarayi had addressed supporters earlier, Muslim League supremo Sayyid Sadik Ali Shihab Thangal said the bypoll was a chance to express solidarity with ASHA workers and reject "a liquor policy that's destroying Kerala’s culture."

The crowd, notably heavy with women, applauded. "Bars are being thrust upon the state. On one hand, the government speaks of abstinence. On the other hand, it is liberally issuing bar licences," he said.

Thangal also drew attention to the Adivasi residents of Kavalappara, many of them brought and seated in the front rows. "We have with us the Adivasis who lost their land in the Kavalappara landslide. It is the responsibility of the government to build homes for them.

Nilambur byelection should be taken as an opportunity to remind the government of its responsibility," he said. Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan added that if Aryadan Shoukath won, the UDF would cross 100 seats in the 2026 Assembly election. But beneath the surface, the UDF was still battling a perception that all was not well between the Congress and the Muslim League.

To counter this, Satheesan, Congress state president Sunny Joseph, and IUML national general secretary P K Kunhalikutty appeared before the media on Tuesday.

Anvar's big numbers
Independent candidate and two-time MLA P V Anvar claimed he would bag 75,000 votes, with Shoukath coming second with around 45,000, and LDF candidate M Swaraj a distant third with around 35,000.

In 2021, Anvar polled 81,227 votes; in 2016, 77,858, both times with LDF’s support.

Anvar insisted that if Shoukath finished second, it wouldn’t hurt the UDF -- only the candidate, a statement that implies that he was still trying to make himself relevant to the UDF.

Just like in the Chelakkara byelection, where Anvar fielded a candidate, in Nilambur too, he decided to skip the final election rally. “We don’t have workers to spare for political theatrics. I will rather have them going from door to door meeting voters,” he said. “Besides, the rallies create traffic blocks for hours in Nilambur.”

Sticking to the brief
Unlike Anvar, both Swaraj and Shoukath stuck to political messaging, steering clear of personal attacks. Swaraj evoked the past -- frequent power cuts, poor roads, and school textbooks arriving after exams -- to contrast with what he called a "golden era" under the LDF.

BJP with a 5% vote share in Nilambur is trying to increase its footprint with the help of Advocate Mohan George, who was with Kerala Congress till he was declared as the BJP's candidate. He focused on the Christian community, the traditional vote bank of the UDF.

Mahasabha's double role
Meanwhile, the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha, a fringe Hindutva organisation, stirred the waters in Nilambur. One faction held a press conference backing the LDF. Another called out the first one as fake and lashed out at the BJP, dubbing it the "Business Janata Party" for not taking the byelection seriously. Both factions claimed influence over 5,000 votes in the constituency.

On Monday, the Akhila Kerala Vishwakarma Maha Sabha pledged its support to the UDF in the presence of Satheesan.

On Tuesday, a rival group, the Vishwakarma Ekopana Samiti, visited P V Anvar’s camp house in Vadapuram to declare its support for the independent candidate. Nilambur votes on June 19. Results will be out on June 23.