Palakkad: The three major political fronts – celebrating the culmination of an acrimonious and bitter one-month-long election campaign – brought Palakkad town to a standstill for over three hours on Monday, November 18, as their roadshows wound through major thoroughfares.

DJ music filled the air and confetti machines carpeted the streets with colours of the three fronts. Bikers and motorcades, adorned with party flags and balloons, stretched the rallies to over a kilometre in length, creating a spectacle of noise and energy.

Supporters, particularly of the UDF and BJP, began pouring into Palakkad town from distant places such as Mavelikara, Pattambi, Kasaragod, Kannur, and nearby Malampuzha as early as Monday morning, adding to the charged atmosphere.

The BJP candidate, C Krishnakumar, launched a mammoth roadshow at 2.30 pm from Melamuri—the epicentre of BJP-RSS activities in Palakkad. His cavalcade, followed by a kilometre-long procession of bikers adorned in saffron and green, wound through Chunnambuthara, Jainimedu, Puthur, Valiyapadam, and Manali Bypass, finally reaching the Stadium Bus Stand around 5.30 pm. The rally avoided the narrow lanes of Kalpathy to ensure a timely arrival at the municipal bus stand, designated as the Kalashakottu stage.

Krishnakumar was joined by BJP state vice-president Sobha Surendran, while BJP state president K Surendran arrived separately in a jeep, mingling with the crowd. The rally also saw the participation of Palakkad’s BJP councillors, despite their reputation for internal divisions.

UDF candidate Rahul Mamkoottathil, accompanied by former Palakkad MLA and present Vadakara MP Shafi Parambil, started their roadshow at 2.30 pm from Olavakkode near the Palakkad Railway Station Junction. The event caused significant inconvenience, leaving traffic at a standstill for nearly an hour and moving sluggishly thereafter, disrupting commuters heading to catch their trains.

The UDF rally passed through Perumkara, Mercy College, Thirunellai, KSRTC Bus Stand, IMA, and Niranjan Road, before converging on Stadium Road around 5.30 pm.

Congress state president K Sudhakaran, Chelakkara's UDF candidate Ramya Haridas, Youth League state president Sayyid Munavvar Ali Shihab Thangal, and General secretary P K Firos, comedian and Congressman Ramesh Pisharody, Sandeep Varier, who was the BJP's state committee member till he joined the Congress, Mannarkkad MLA N Samsudheen and Congress state vice-president V T were among the leaders who joined Mamkoottathil at Kalashikottu.

The LDF's final road show began from the vicinity of Government Victoria College and proceeded via Head Post Office, Tharekkad, and Sultanpet Junction, and reached the Stadium Bus Stand.

Its independent candidate P Sarin was flanked by CPM leaders A K Balan and CPM Palakkad district secretary E N Suresh Babu and minister M B Rajesh in his open jeep.

An election of personality cults and turncoats
Personality cults and turncoats took centre stage, while issues and ideologies took a backseat in the Palakkad by-election campaign. When the three fronts declared their candidates, major upheavals unfolded within all of them.

Rahul Mamkoottathil was accused of being a nominee of Shafi Parambil. Veteran Congress leader K Muraleedharan, a potential candidate, felt slighted and initially stayed away from campaigning. One grassroots Congress leader quit and filed his nomination paper but later withdrew from the election at the request of LDF candidate Sarin.

Sarin, himself a turncoat, was made the LDF's candidate just a day after quitting as the head of Congress's Kerala Media Cell after he was denied the Palakkad ticket. During campaigning, CPM faced a massive public revolt from party committees against its District Secretary’s authoritarian rule.

A BJP poster of Sobha Surendran was allegedly set on fire by Krishnakumar's supporters after it emerged that she was a potential candidate in Palakkad. However, the BJP managed to keep its internal troubles under wraps until Sandeep Varier’s sudden exit hit the party like a bolt from the blue.

In the final stages, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's attack on IUML state President Syed Sadikali Shihab Thangal dominated the limelight. The UDF hit back, alleging that the CPM was speaking the language of the BJP-RSS. BJP state president K. Surendran also weighed in, saying that Sadikali was not beyond criticism. Vijayan claimed Sadikali was a follower of 'Jamaat-e-Islami,' which the CPM described as the mirror image of RSS. The chief minister targeted the IUML supremo, especially after a disgruntled BJP spokesperson joined the Congress and met Sadikali at Panakkad.

To be sure, CPM had initially rolled out the red carpet for Sandeep Varier after his public issues with the party leadership. CPM central committee member A.K. Balan had even praised him as a man with a 'crystal clear' character. But the Congress managed to stage a coup and inducted him into their fold.

Within the BJP, the Moothan community, which has historically been one of the staunchest supporters of the RSS-BJP, expressed its displeasure with C Krishnakumar’s candidature. The community has five councillors in the Palakkad municipality. Krishnakumar is suspected of having played a role in removing Priya Ajayan, a Moothan community member, from the post of chairperson last December.

On Monday, November 18, the last day of public campaigning, Krishnakumar spent considerable time at the Moothan Service Society office at Moothanthara. Moothan community leaders told Onmanorama that while they were unhappy with the party, they would follow the RSS's direction. The RSS’s first shakha in Kerala was set up in Moothanthara by members of the community in 1944.

Leaders added that the exit of Sandeep Varier, whose mother is a member of the Moothan community, would not have a significant effect on the election. On the final day of campaigning, the BJP managed to unite all its dissenters in support of Krishnakumar.

Ten days before the election, both the BJP and LDF were left red-faced when Kerala Police raided the hotel rooms of Congress leaders Shanimol Usman and Bindu Krishnan, searching for unaccounted money. As the raids took place in the middle of the night, CPM and BJP workers gathered outside the hotel, raising slogans against the UDF. The police found nothing in the rooms, and both the BJP and CPM were trolled on social media by the UDF.

On Monday, all three fronts focused on the issue of bogus voting, accusing each other of adding fake voters to the list. The LDF, led by A K Balan, staged a protest in front of the Collectorate, with Rajesh stating that the LDF would approach the High Court over bogus voters, regardless of the election results. The Congress, one of the first parties to file a written complaint about bogus voting, accused the LDF candidate and BJP’s district president of holding dual votes. The BJP, in turn, alleged that the UDF had added fake voters to the list.

In the end, the issues of paddy farmers, lack of human resources in medical colleges, and governance paralysis in the municipality remained mere footnotes in the campaign.