Palode Ravi hopeful, Ramachandran Nair confident

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
11 Apr 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Will Palode Ravi miss it between the cup and the lip this time ? This is the question doing the rounds in Nedumangad constituency as the Assembly elections are just two days away.
Ravi had suffered a defeat by a meagre margin to CPI’s Mangode Radhakrishnan consecutively in the last two Assembly elections at Nedumangad constituency. During 2006, Ravi was defeated by a margin of 85 votes, which was the lowest margin during that elections in the state. In 2001, Ravi lost to Radhakrishnan by 156 votes.
“This time I am sure that the debacle won’t repeat as the people of Nedumangad are eagerly awaiting a change,” says a much confident Ravi.
It was not the political situations, but other factors like the sentimental votes that had come in favour of Mangode during the previous years as he suffered a road accident just before the elections, says Ravi.
Ravi could heave a sigh of relief as it’s not the two-time victorious Radhakrishnan, but P Ramachandran Nair, who is quite new to parliamentary politics, who is his opponent this time. Hence Ravi, who hails from the nearby Palode, claims to have the advantage of being a local.
Ramachandran Nair, who is the district secretary of CPI, had tested his luck in parliamentary politics in the Lok Sabha elections in 2009. However, he suffered a defeat by a margin of about one lakh votes to Shashi Tharoor of the Congress in the Thiruvananthapuram constituency. With regard to confidence, Ramachandran Nair is not at all behind Ravi.
As he walks along the voters seeking their mandate, Ramachandran Nair lists out the achievements of the LDF Government one by one “The achievements of the LDF Government is the biggest factor in my favour. Moreover, with V S Achuthanandan leading the front, all the LDF candidates will get the advantage of the VS factor,” says Ramachandran Nair.
The thrust being given by the two-time MLA Ravi throughout his campaign is the development activities he had initiated in Nedumangad.
“I am sure the people of Nedumangad will not forget the development that I had brought in at Nedumangad during my earlier term as MLA here. Nedumangad had seen development in all fronts during my term. Now the people badly wants Nedumangad to be back on the development track and my lone agenda in development,” Ravi told Express on the sidelines of his busy campaign schedules in Nedumangad constituency.
The anti-incumbency factor will also work in my favour this time, adds Ravi.
Both the LDF and the UDF camps are claiming advantage over the delimitation of the Nedumangad constituency. According to the LDF leaders, with delimitation Panavoor, Aruvikara and Vellanad that are UDF strongholds got detached from Nedumangad Assembly constituency, where as LDF strongholds like Pothencode, Manickal and Andoorkonam have become part of the constituency.
However, the local Congress leaders claim that the wards that are newly attached to the constituency are UDF’s strongholds and hence it is advantage UDF with delimitation.
Though not strong enough to give a tight fight to the veteran politicians, BJP candidate K S Anjana is also active in the campaign front to make the presence of BJP felt in the Nedumangad area.
“The people are fed up with the UDF and LDF and hence it’s advantage BJP this time,” says Anjana who was an active leader of the Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. Alike any other candidate, Anjana also expresses confidence that she will emerge victorious in the polls.