Congress Kerala president Mullappally Ramachandran, while announcing the party's candidate list earlier this month, took a few minutes extra in the case of one candidate—Aritha Babu, the youngest in the list. “She hails from a marginalised community. She sells milk from her cow every day to make a living and support her family. She spends the rest of her time towards various social and political works,” said Mullappally.
“She is the Congress party’s model candidate. The party is proud to field her,” added Mullappally.
Priyanka Gandhi, too, often mentioned her name with special interest while campaigning in Kerala. “We are proud to have candidates like Aritha coming from underprivileged backgrounds,'' she said while holding the latter's hand.
Aritha, 27, was previously elected to Alappuzha District Panchayat and was the youngest District Panchayat member. Aritha, a post-graduate in Social Works, is presently pursuing her Masters in Commerce. She is contesting against U. Prathiba, CPI(M)’s sitting MLA in Kayamkulam.
Aritha was planning to get married when the election was announced. “Marriage can wait,” she said. Aritha is just one example of certain good things that are happening in the political landscape of Kerala. The politics in the state is getting more local, deep rooted and decentralised.
Majority of the candidates are fresh faces. While Congress has 55 per cent new faces, the LDF has replaced 41 sitting MLAs. More importantly, none of them are airdropped or sons or daughters of veteran leaders. Most of them have climbed the political ladder the hard way. Also there are no VIP candidates this time.
The candidate lists of both the fronts are also breaking the 'class' ceilings.
Linto Joseph, the CPI(M) candidate in Thiruvambadi constituency and a former state champion in athletics, walks with support now. This current president of Koodaranji Grama Panchayat, became a handicap in an accident that happened during the 2018 floods. As there were a shortage of drivers during the rescue operations, he drove an ambulance to take a heart patient to the hospital when a tipper hit the ambulance and he sustained an injury. Joseph, 29, hailing from a lower middle class background, was a central committee member of SFI.
Then there is Sobha Subin, Congress candidate from Kaipamangalam in Thrissur. An orphan, he earned his living as a newspaper delivery boy and a fisherman. He was orphaned at a very yiung age when his father was sent to jail for murdering his mother. “My insecure background helps me to understand the insecurities of others. I still have not got over the fact that I have no mother or father. I try to overcome that feeling by being with people,'' he said. He sounded determined to capture the Left bastion.
The CPI(M) candidate in Thiruvananthapuram's Aruvikkara constituency, G. Stephen has a similar yet different growth trajectory. Stephen, who lost his parents when he was 10, was raised by the CPI(M). His parents – Bhagavathy and George – had an interfaith marriage and had no support from their families. Hence, the party took the responsibility of raising Stephen. “I lost my parents at the age of five and my father when I was 9. I lived in party offices during my school days while the party took care of my education,'' Stephen said. Once he grew up, he started banana farming in others' land to earn a living. He was very active in politics from very young days and later became the president of Kattakkada panchayat at the age of 26.
There are not many jobs that M.S. Arun Kumar, LDF candidate in Mavelikkara has not done. From fishing to plumbing, electric works, construction work and digging pits in graveyards, he has done it all to support his family after losing his father at the age of 13. A Facebook post by former principal of Bishop Moore College where Arun had studied which had detailed the struggles of Arun, who was the chairman of the college, during his days in college had gone viral.
That both the fronts have come up with candidates with a difference has certainly changed the traditional political narrative. It is not that there were no candidates from deprived backgrounds earlier.“The Left has always had candidates from very poor backgrounds, including the current CM Pinarayi Vijayan. But it became a talking point when Congress was successful in marketing Ramya Haridas's class background in the 2019 LS elections. If she captured a Left bastion with a thumping majority, her background did play a huge role in that,'' said Saju Gangadharan, a political observer. “It is interesting to see that her opponent's caste and class background were also similar. But CPI(M) did not understand the marketing potential until Congress used it effectively,'' he added.
He also felt that there is a `Rahul Gandhi angle' to the Congress' change in style.
Another important aspect in the candidate list is that 35 per cent of the candidates contesting this election have come their way up through local bodies. There are a total of 402 candidates in the fray with local body poll experiences. While 51 Assembly candidates have held top posts including Mayor, President and Chairpersons, 13 have held Deputy Mayor/vice chairman posts.
“That there is a good percentage of candidates with a local governance background is indeed a very good thing. That shows the robustness of Kerala's local governance system and it is something unique to Kerala,'' S. M. Vijayanand, former Union Secretary for Panchayat Raj and former Chief Secretary told The WEEK.
According to him, this trend will work in two ways. “While it will bring more hands experienced in governance and developmental issues to the Assembly, it will also make LSG elections a more attractive proposition as a launching pad to bigger things,'' he said.
According to Dr Joy Elamon, Director, KILA, majority of the women candidates contesting this election from all the fronts have local governance experience. “That all political parties are giving seats to women candidates who have come up from the ground is indeed a welcoming trend,'' he said. Veena Nair, Chinju Rani, Prathiba Hari, Shanimol Usman, Daleema, Lathika Subhash, Sindhu Mol, Bindu, Noorbina Rasheed, Kanathil Jameela are a few to name.
That political parties are looking specifically for leaders with grass root level connections is evident if one goes through the list of all the fronts. It is as if all fronts have accepted that airdropping candidates is over.
This trend also reflects the increasing affinity to personality-driven politics, according to observers. “Earlier, people voted according to their political leanings and candidates came only secondary. But now it is more or less the reverse, even in ideological driven parties like CPI(M),'' said Sajjad Ibrahim, a psephologist. “Many surveys have pointed out that the profile of a candidate is increasingly becoming crucial more than one's ideological leanings, especially among the middle and upper middle class,'' said Ibrahim.
All these are welcoming trends and show the deep-rooted democratic structures of the state, he added.
