GET inside any railway station in Kerala and you are greeted over the public address system either by Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Pinarayi Vijayan or VS Achuthanandan. Pre-recorded audio messages of these three leaders urge voters to usher in the Left Democratic Front into government in the ensuring assembly elections in the state. Campaign fever has gripped Kerala and huge hoardings, banners and flags dot the entire state. Kerala goes to the polls on May 16. It is over a month into the campaign now and a few more days of campaigning remain. Summer is at its peak and temperatures hover around and above 41 degrees in some places like Palakkad. But the stakes are very high for both the major contenders – the CPI(M) which leads the LDF and the Congress which heads the UDF – in this long drawn campaign, the blistering heat and humid conditions notwithstanding. The BJP, which fancies opening its account in the assembly, is also trying to project itself as an alternative to the two traditional rival fronts. CORRUPT AND INEFFICIENT UDF The Oommen Chandy government will go down in history as being one of the most corrupt and inefficient governments Kerala has ever seen. With the exclusion of one minister, PK Jayalakshmi, cases of corruption have been registered against all others. She too is now under the scanner of the Election Commission for discrepancy in her educational qualification filed this time as compared to the 2011 affidavit. With dozens of cases filed against him, the chief minister heads the list. Whether it be the infamous solar scam, bar bribery case or the ones involving transfer of huge tracts of land to builders and promoters, throughout its tenure it has been engaged in desperately trying to ward off the impact of a series of scams and corruption charges, which continued to rock it at regular intervals. Even if it intended, it had little time left for governance. Two of its ministers had to resign in the wake of court strictures in corruption related cases. Throughout the five year tenure of the UDF regime, the CPI(M) and the LDF have been consistently engaged in campaigns against the misrule, corruption and various other people’s issues. It had formed a huge human chain against the ASEAN agreement; laid a successful siege of the government secretariat seeking the CM’s resignation over the Solar scam issue; led a sustained agitation against the then finance minister K M Mani over the bar bribery scandal, etc. Apart from agitating on political issues, the CPI(M) has endeavoured to take up social issues. Towards this end it took up innovative programmes like promotion of organic farming, setting up of palliative care centres in various places in the state, as also continuing to promote the Kudumbashree project. Despite contesting assembly elections in the past, the BJP was never considered a serious player. However, with its vote share increasing in the elections to the local bodies held last year, the BJP is making an all-out effort to open its account in the assembly. It has now formally launched the NDA in Kerala, an alliance of several small parties. The seriousness that the party is according to this election is revealed by the fact that RSS has taken over the overall control of the BJP’s campaign. For the first time in the history of the BJP in Kerala a hardcore RSS worker, Kummanam Rajasekharan, known for his strident communal positions, has been selected to head the state unit. Though the UDF is fighting on the plank of continuity for development, with its central slogan being “Let Kerala grow, let this government continue”, the fact remains that it has no major development work to show off. On the contrary while economic growth was to the tune of 7.6 percent during the previous LDF government, it has come down to 6.1 percent now. The Kochi Metro or the Kannur airport which the UDF flaunts as its achievements, were projects initiated by the earlier LDF government. Even on these two projects, progress has been tardy. While just 5 kms of the Kochi Metro track have been completed, there has been virtually no progress on the runway for the Kannur airport. Even with regard to the Vizhingam port, the interests of the state were ignored while handing it over to Adani. It is estimated that it will take at least 60 years before any benefit accrues to the state. The entire PDS system, which the state used to pride upon, is in shambles. It is estimated that around three-fourths of the Maveli/Consumerfed stores have closed down. Prices at stores that are still functional are almost the same as in the open market, depriving the much needed shield for the poor against burgeoning prices of essential commodities. Traditional industries like coir and cashew are in doldrums. While workers engaged in the cashew industry get just 30 days of work throughout the year as compared to 300 during the LDF regime, the coir industry has almost wound up. There is a crisis looming over the beedi sector also. The situation is grim in the agricultural sector. Prices of rubber, an important cash crop, have plummeted thanks to the ASEAN agreement. Prices for raw rubber that ranged around Rs 250 per kg three years ago now hover around Rs 100 to 140. Farmers who had planted the saplings are now filled with pain having to cut down these trees that they had painstakingly nurtured over the years. The districts of Kottayam, Idduki, Pathanamthitta, Ernakulam, Palakkad and Kozhikode are the worst affected. In the last five years around 90 farmers have committed suicide owing to huge losses and inability to service their debts. Coconut prices have also come down drastically. During the last financial year, agricultural growth has come down to 4.67 percent. Apart from the disastrous consequences of the ASEAN agreement on Kerala’s economy, a decline in remittances from expatriates in the Gulf countries is on the anvil. Added to it are the huge losses being incurred by public sector undertakings in the state. The UDF had promised to generate 300 mw of additional electricity in its manifesto for the 2011 elections, but in reality what has been generated is only 3 mw. Of the total consumption of the state only 20 percent is generated locally and the rest has to be imported from other states. The debt of Rs 17,000 crores that the government had when the UDF came to power has now escalated to Rs 1.58 lakh crores, which comes to around Rs 46,700 per head. The government has not paid pensions under welfare schemes to beneficiaries for the past nine months. Nearly Rs 300 crore is due to paddy farmers, with around 100 crores to farmers in the district of Palakkad alone. CONGRESS’S INTERNAL SQUABBLES The Congress, which is the largest constituent of the UDF, has been plagued by internal dissensions. The chief minister who heads one faction and the KPCC president VM Sudheeran who heads another faction have been working at cross purposes. In fact the closing down of the around 700 bars in the state is also an outcome of this internecine feud. In order to outsmart the KPCC president who had demanded that the 418 bars that were closed for being unhygienic and sub-standard, under court directives, should not be reopened, Chandy announced the closure of all bars, with the exception of those run in five star hotels. While the government is patting its back and claims success of its prohibition policy, the fact is that the Beverages Corporation, the sole agency responsible for retailing alcohol in the state has reported an increase in its sale by around Rs 1500 crore as against the last year. The “closed bars” have now been converted into “beer and wine parlours”, with allegations rife that hard liquor is available on the sly for regulars. Senior Congress leader A K Antony even alleged that with the closure of bars “homes have been turned into bars”. Another alarming fact is the reported rise in the consumption of intoxicating drugs like hashish and marijuana. Things have been bad within the UDF also. The Kerala Congress, a major constituent of the UDF, split three ways with two joining the LDF. This is definitely going to affect the prospects of the UDF in the central Travancore region. Other constituents of the UDF too are not satisfied with the seat allocations. The sole exception is the Muslim League. CONGRESS-BJP: TACIT UNDERSTANDING However, what is disturbing is the Congress’s complete silence on the BJP-RSS and its communal politics. This has given rise to suspicions that there is a tacit understanding between the two parties. Adding strength to these allegations are the withdrawal of the case against VHP leader Praveen Togadia for making inflammatory speeches and another case in which an RSS leader was accused of attempt to murder of a senior police official. The BJP had polled around 19 percent in the elections to the local bodies held last year. Apart from central ministers and the BJP president, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is himself campaigning in Kerala for around a week. The party is spending huge amounts of money. Its ally the BDJS is also not likely to make much of an impact in elections except in one or two seats. Its efforts to rally other social groupings and organisations like the Nair Service Society (NSS) did not succeed. The BJP however is pinning its hope on this tacit understanding with the Congress in a few select constituencies to be able to make it to the assembly. LDF MANIFESTO It is in this background that the LDF has come out with an alternative set of policies and programmes. The LDF manifesto has put forth a 35 point programme, with 600 clauses. It seeks to address the main concerns of the state. While promising the revival and modernisation of traditional industries like coir, cashew handloom etc, it seeks to address the question of the growing number of educated unemployed in the state by talking of creating ten lakh jobs in the IT, tourism, electronic and other related industrial sectors within the next five years. A further 15 lakh jobs will be created in agriculture, construction, commerce and small-scale industries. Unemployment is high, with the state government’s own estimate saying that it is three times the national average. The LDF manifesto accords top priority to this issue. The manifesto also calls for uprooting corruption and inefficiency among other things. Having taken the lead in announcing its list of candidates, the LDF has already completed the constituency level conventions and followed it up with meetings at the panchayat and booth level. These having been completed, it launched a series of public meetings and rallies throughout the state. While Polit Bureau member Pinarayi Vijayan started the campaign from Thiruvananthapuram in the south, leader of the opposition VS Achuthanandan began from Kasargode in the north. State secretary and PB member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and PB Member MA Baby are also touring various districts in the state. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury has hit the campaign trail from April 30, while Polit Bureau member Prakash Karat has begun his campaign from May 1. Other Polit Bureau members who are partaking in the campaign are Manik Sarkar, Brinda Karat, AK Padmanabhan, BV Raghavulu, Hannan Mollah and Subhashini Ali. Much before the elections were formally announced, the LDF had already kick-started its campaign with a march led by PB member Pinarayi Vijayan covering the length and breadth of the Sstate. This mass contact programme was a huge success drawing in thousands of people wherever it went. While the UDF is calling for continuity in the name of development the LDF raises the hope that “everything will be alright”, once the LDF assumes office. It trusts that the people will positively respond to its call for a “secular, corruption-free and developed Kerala”. This confidence is derived from the combination of political agitations and social initiatives that the CPI(M) and the LDF have conducted over the past five years along with the alternate set of programme and polices that the LDF has put before the people. It hopes that this should inspire the people of Kerala when they go to vote on May 16. (With inputs from V Jain, Thiruvananthapuram)