JOIN USTwenty-20 forum fields 5 candidates for Kerala Assembly polls
Posing a serious challenge to the mainstream political parties, Twenty-20, a forum initiated by a corporate firm that won in four panchayats in Kerala in the recent local body elections, has announced candidates for five constituencies in Ernakulam district for the Assembly election.
While the surge of the forum formed as part of the CSR activities of Kitex Garments in the last local body elections had triggered debates on whether it was desirable in a democracy to have a corporate-controlled forum gaining the power in panchayats, the forum founder president and managing director of Kitex Garments used to maintain that the failure of mainstream political parties paved the way for the victory of Twenty-20.
The forum has now gained more significance as many noted personalities from various fields have announced their association with Twenty-20. Known businessman and founder chairman of V-Guard industries Kochouseph Chittillappilly, who is also a known philanthropist, leading actor and filmmaker Sreenivasan and filmmaker Siddique are among those who announced their association with Twenty-20.
Chittillappilly told DH that when Twenty-20 was formed in 2015 and decided to contest in the local body elections in the firm’s home panchayat Kizhakambalam, about 20 kilometres from Kochi city, he was also quite sceptical about the initiative. But the forum brought in massive development in the panchayat not by pumping in CSR funds, but by improving the efficiency of the panchayat’s administration and thereby ensuring that funds from the central and state governments were utilised properly without any sort of corruption and ensuring transparency. The social welfare of the residents of the panchayat was initiated by studying the needs of the people.
He also said that Twenty-20 has now won in three more nearby panchayats as the people of those panchayats were impressed by the changes that happened in the Kizhakambalam panchayat. This had raised the hopes of the people in the forum and hence it may have its reflection in favour of Twenty-20 in the Assembly elections also.
K Venu, a senior social activist and communist thinker, said that with a corporate firm at the helm of the affairs of a Twenty-20, it would have more vested interests rather than the interests of people. It seems they wooed support from people by pumping in money for welfare activities. But it might not be a loss for the firm as the local body, which has the power to allow permissions to industrial units in the locality, has come under their control. Moreover, there were also allegations that many pollution issues caused by the corporate firm in Kizhakambalam panchayat were being suppressed.
Countering this, Chittillappilly said that it was nothing wrong that the person heading the forum is a businessman as many leaders of political parties were widely believed to be setting up benami business ventures after entering politics. He also said that the allegations of hushing up pollution issues in the panchayat were baseless as monitoring agencies like Pollution Control Boards were not under the control of the panchayat.
Twenty-20 announced candidates for Kunnathunadu, Perumbavoor, Kothamangalam, Muvattupuzha and Vypin in Ernakulam and it is identifying candidates for some more constituencies. All candidates, including doctors, are professionally qualified and hail from the constituencies.
Apart from retaining power at Kizhakambalam panchayat, Twenty-20 won nearby Aikaranadu, Muzhavanoor and Kunnathunadu in the recent local body election. Providing decent housing and drinking water for all, developing roads, initiating a host of welfare activities and opening a shop selling grocery items at very reasonable prices were the highlights of the initiatives of Twenty-20 at Kizhakambalam.
Concerned over the surge of the forum, leaders of mainstream political parties were holding talks with the forum leaders.