Thodupuzha: Udumbanchola MLA MM Mani lashed at UDF Lok Sabha candidate Dean Kuriakose during a speech in Idukki on Monday, alleging the Congress leader was more interested in visiting beauty parlours and that he would face a humiliating defeat in the upcoming election.

During a party event at the Idukki Suspension Bridge, Mani mocked Kuriakose, suggesting that he was a eunuch who was as good as dead. Mani taunted Kuriakose claiming that the incumbent MP frequented beauty parlors, adorned himself with powder and posed for photos. He added that the Idukki MP would lose the election so badly that he would not even get his deposit back.

Mano also trained his guns on  former MP P J Kurien by abusing him. The MLA concluded his speech with an appeal to the public to change their mandate as 'they were paying the price for his inaction'.

Meanwhile, Dean Kuriakose responded that he would never stoop low enough to respond to Mani's tirade in his language. The sitting MP also questioned why Mani did not do anything for the people of Idukki during his tenure as minister.

The Idukki constituency is poised for a hat-trick showdown between two candidates, with Joyce George standing as the Left front candidate against the incumbent Kuriakose. While George won by a margin of 50,542 votes in 2014, Kuriakose triumphed with a whopping 1,71,053-vote margin in 2019. This marks the first Lok Sabha election after the Kerala Congress (M), which wields significant influence in Idukki, parted ways with the UDF.