V S Achuthanandan, the fiery CPM leader whose seemingly jocular yet pointed verbal tirades against political opponents helped him unknowingly cultivate a 'film star-like fan base' across the state, has been conspicuously absent from the Left Democratic Front's (LDF) election campaign scene this time.
The 97-year-old veteran Communist leader has been avoiding public meetings because of health issues.
Surprisingly, the LDF's poll wing too shut out the crowd puller, who had played crucial role in the coalition’s victory several times in the past, from its campaign materials.
LDF's campaign materials look monotonous across the state, which juxtaposed the image of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan - Achuthananadan's bete noire in the party - with that of the candidates in each constituency, proclaiming the catchphrase 'For Sure, it is LDF' (Urappanu LDF).
But the hoardings look different in Malampuzha constituency, which is witnessing a three-way contest among CPM leader A Prabhakaran (LDF), Congress's SK Ananthakrishnan (UDF) and BJP’s C Krishnakumar (NDA).
VS (as Achuthanandan is fondly called) represented Malampuzha for 20 years from 2001 to 2021.
The LDF campaign tools here display photos of VS prominently along with Pinarayi Vijayan, in an attempt to woo the voters.
"Election in Malampuzha would be incomplete without VS. He is a mass leader. Election or no election, LDF could not ignore him," said a CPM member, who preferred anonymity, in Elappully, where this correspondent spotted a huge hoarding with VS's image.
LDF candidate in Malampuzha Prabhakaran is known as a close aide of Achuthanandan. He coordinated VS’s campaign in all the four elections from 2001 to 2016.
"I was the election committee secretary for VS in all his four elections from Malampuzha," he said.
Prabhakaran said VS is the heart throb of the party workers across the state and it is quite natural for the party to use his images in poll campaigns. "VS is a tall leader. It is quite natural to use his images in the campaign materials," he said.
