Puthuppally bypoll: LDF banks on development work, UDF relies on sympathy for late Oommen Chandy

Puthuppally bypoll: LDF banks on development work, UDF relies on sympathy for late Oommen Chandy

The campaign for the Puthuppally assembly seat, that fell vacant due to the death of Congress stalwart Oommen Chandy, saw the ruling LDF claiming to have pushed development in the state and the Congress-led UDF largely banking on the sympathy wave over its late leader's demise.

The BJP, on the other hand, was seen contending that the development in the southern state and the assembly constituency was thanks to the efforts of the policies of the Narendra Modi-led Central government.

As the three-weeks long bypoll campaign in Puthuppally here came to an end on Sunday evening with 'Kottikalasham' -- face off between supporters of the rival parties to the beats of percussion instruments -- it had witnessed cyber attacks in candidates' family members, road shows by senior political leaders and challenges and counter challenges by the candidates.

Even Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his family came under attack during the campaign from the opposition UDF and BJP with both accusing him and his daughter of corruption in the wake of some alleged financial transactions between her firm and a Kochi-based minerals company.

The chief minister, who addressed over a half dozen campaign events, kept mum regarding the allegations against him and his daughter, but attacked the BJP for its policies which were allegedly financially choking the southern state and accused the Congress-led UDF of being a silent spectator to the problems being faced by Kerala as a result of the Centre's decisions.

While ignoring the allegations against him and his daughter, Vijayan only sought to highlight the developmental achievements and welfare measures of his government.

The UDF campaign saw senior Congress leaders like AICC general secretary K C Venugopal and party MP Shashi Tharoor besides its state unit chief K Sudhakaran, Leader of Opposition in the assembly V D Satheesan and Ramesh Chennithala leading from the front.

Satheesan, addressing a press conference today expressed confidence that the party would retain the seat which was held by Chandy for 53 years.

"We have full confidence that we will win this by-election. We believe that Chandy Oommen could garner votes cutting across political and religious barriers.

"This election will reflect the people's love towards Oommen Chandy and a mandate against the Left government," Satheesan said.

While the Left front contended that the UDF was banking on a sympathy wave, Oommen refuted the same.

"It is not a sympathy wave. It is a wave of pride about the kind of leader Oommen Chandy was. People are proud about how he treated everyone as his family, how he brought establishments of international standards to the state and the development he brought in the state," he claimed.

Meanwhile, LDF candidate Thomas Jaick C said that right from the start there have been attacks on his personal life starting from questioning the source of his personal assets and ending with the more recent cyber attack on his wife.

He contended that these attacks on him were in response to his claims about the development brought in the state by the ruling Left and his questioning of what Chandy had done for Puthuppally while representing the constituency for 53 years.

Appearing confident, Thomas said that Puthuppally was gearing up for a change and it was clearly visible among the people.

The Election Commission, less than a month after Chandy's death on July 18, on August 8 had announced September 5 as the date of polling and September 8 for counting of the votes.

Within hours of that, the Congress-led UDF opposition in the state had announced Oommen Chandy's son, Chandy Oommen, as its candidate and kicked off its byelection campaign.

Few days later, the ruling LDF in the state announced DYFI leader Jaick C Thomas -- who had in 2016 and 2021 contested from the area and lost to Oommen Chandy both times -- as its candidate.

The BJP, soon thereafter, put forward the name of its Kottayam district president, G Lijinlal, as the party's candidate.

Other than the three, four other candidates -- one from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and three independent contestants -- also joined the fray for the seat.

The campaigning saw the LDF, UDF and the BJP accusing each other of not doing anything for the development of Puthuppally and the state as a whole.

The most heated accusations, allegations and challenges were thrown against each other by the UDF and LDF candidates.

Oommen and Thomas called out each other for debates on the issues of development in the state and Puthuppally as well as an assessment of the ruling Left front's governance.

Oommen has rejected the LDF camp's allegations that there was a lack of development in the Puthuppally constituency represented by his father for over five decades.

He also questioned the LDF claims that it has pushed development in the state during its seven-year rule.

Thomas on the other hand said he was ready to debate on the issue of development carried out in the state by the Left government in the last 7 years vis-a-vis the development in the constituency over the years. However, it did not go beyond the challenges and counter-challenges.

The campaign also saw some ugly moments when cyber attacks were made against Oommen's sister Achu and Thomas' wife.

On August 28, Achu Oommen, the younger daughter of former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, approached the police about the alleged cyber attacks against her.

She said she had been working as a content creator in the fashion and travel sector for some years and her photographs, taken as part of her job, were misused on cyber platforms by vested interest with a deliberate intention to malign her father's reputation.

'The accused has purposefully lied to the public with the culpable and malicious intention to defame the complainant and thereby to spread an untrue, false and scandalous imputation against the complainant that she and her late father are corrupt,' she had said in her complaint.

Later, on September 2, Thomas' pregnant wife -- Geethu -- lodged a complaint with the Kerala police alleging that certain social media handles have been targeting her for campaigning for her husband.

The social media handles have made the videos alleging that the Left candidate was trying to garner votes using his pregnant wife.

The intense political campaign also saw senior party leaders of both the LDF and UDF camping in the district to push for their respective candidates' victory.

Extensive road shows were also held by all three parties during the last few days of the campaign.

Candidates of LDF, UDF and BJP also appeared confident of a win in the bypoll on the last day of the campaigning.

While Oommen campaigned on foot, Thomas was part of a bike rally and Lijinlal was seen atop a crane with senior leaders of his party on Sunday.

Large number of supporters of the LDF, UDF and BJP faced off in 'kottikalasham' in many places of the district as the campaigning came to an end.