All major political fronts in Kerala are engaged in a prestigious electoral contest in the Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha constituency which has acquired a never-before importance over the Sabarimala temple issue.
The constituency houses the hill shrine where the Supreme Court allowed the entry of women of all ages after junking a traditional bar on young women. The verdict last year led to a major protest that pitted the devotees, who were rallied primarily by the right-wing outfits, against the liberal camp.
Being the nerve centre of the agitation against women's entry to the popular Ayyappa shrine, Pathanamthitta witnessed several hartals and street demonstrations.
After the Lok Sabha elections were announced early last month, electoral authorities have warned against the use of religious issues including that of young women's entry to the Sabarimala temple as a campaign issue, but the parties in the fray are using the issue liberally at ground zero.
The Pathanamthitta constituency in south Kerala is made up of five legislative assembly segments falling within the Pathanamthitta district and two in the Kottayam district. Parts of the former district were the worst-affected in the great flood that Kerala witnessed last August. Ranni, Aranmula and Tiruvalla suffered huge losses. The deluge laid waste to the commerce sector already crippled by the demonetisation and the hasty rollout of the Goods and Services Tax. Agricultural sector also lay in ruins. Many houses were shattered or damaged.
The constituency also faces pressing problems such as the return of Non-Resident Indians, threat of eviction from forest areas, the intrusion of wildlife into farms, misery of the tribesfolk and a shortage of drinking water in summer.
Congress eyes hat-trick
Congress MP Anto Antony is aiming for a hat-trick in Pathanamthitta. He is expecting to double his lead by making use of the personal contacts he has developed over the course of a decade. It is well known that he was in the forefront of rescue and relief operations during the flood, turning his house into a distribution centre of relief materials. He also stood by the people who wanted to preserve the convention barring women in Sabarimala temple.
CPM's trump card
The CPM, on the other hand, hopes to pull off an upset win through Veena George, a former journalist who wrested the Aranmula assembly seat for the party in 2016. Her campaign focuses on her works to develop Aranmula.
She was also an active presence in the rescue and relief operations during the flood. She also lined up with other leaders of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in its campaign called human wall in a bid to highlight the renaissance values of the state.
The BJP fighter
BJP has deployed one of its potent weapons in Pathanamthitta. K Surendran, one of its state general secretaries, lost the last assembly election from Manjeswaram by just 89 votes. He was a vocal critic of the government during the Sabarimala agitation. He was so aggressive that a court barred him from entering the district for some time.
P C George, MLA, who had threatened to contest in the constituency, is close the BJP-led NDA camp. While Veena secured an early advantage because the LDF announced its candidates early, the UDF candidate Anto knows he is already familiar in the constituency.
How numbers are stacked
In the 2014 general election, the Congress-led United Democratic Front led in all seven assembly segments, including the Ranni, Thiruvalla and Adoor segments which had LDF MLAs. In the 2016 assembly election, the LDF retained these three seats and wrested Aranmula from the UDF.
Meanwhile, the BJP has been steadily increasing its vote share, from 1.38 lakh in 2014 to 1,91 lakh in 2016 in the Lok Sabha seat.