Books to candidate instead of shawls and bouquets at Alappuzha in Kerala

Alappuzha: A village at Alappuzha in Kerala has shown a model for the election campaign by presenting fresh notebooks instead of bouquets or shawls to a CPI(M) candidate during the reception at a campaign meeting. The books thus collected will be distributed to students from weaker sections as the schools reopen after summer vacations.

Left-front workers of Adyapadam at Punnapra near Ambalapuzha in Alappuzha district have shown the novel way. As sitting MP and left-front candidate A M Arif of the CPI(M) reached the spot for the election campaign meeting on Monday, the left-front workers received him by handing over notebooks.

A local CPI(M) activist Nithin Thomas came up with the idea. "Usually ribbon, shawls and bouquets are presented while receiving candidates. But there is not much use of those materials and hence we thought of an alternative. Thus the idea of presenting note books came up," he told DH.

Around 75 notebooks were collected during the reception on Monday. The MP returned the book to the local party unit. The books will be distributed among students from financially weak families in the locality. The response to the initiative is also a boost to initiate further such collection drives that could help the weaker sections, Thomas said.

Earlier a CPI(M) young MLA in Thiruvananthapuram made a similar initiative. Thiruvananthapuram Mayor turned MLA V K Prasanth requested his supporters to present him books instead of flowers or garlands during a series of receptions after his victory from Vattiyoorkavu in a by-poll in 2019. He got thousands of books that were used to set up libraries at government schools in his constituency.