P Rajeeve makes a point with Kamal Nath and cowshed barb

KOCHI: On the eve of Vishu, just after nightfall, festivity was at its peak in Konchery, a Muslim belt in Mattancherry.


Crackers were burst, and fireworks lit up the skies adding to the festive fervour. People thronged the narrow lanes. Burqa-clad women and children lined up on either side of the lane. Even the terraces of buildings were occupied with people. They were welcoming

P Rajeeve

, the LDF candidate, to their locality.

At each point, where the organisers have arranged a reception to the candidate, Rajeeve would get off from the open jeep and go to the people seeking votes and their blessings. “This is the place of T M Mohammed (a popular CPM leader and former mayor of Kochi). I had come here several times. During my student days, when I used to come here, T M would ask me whether I had food,” he said.

“Now, as I come to you seeking votes, some hold my hands firmly. Some others hug me. It shows the love you shower on me,” he moved on to the next point. At Thuruthy, people welcomed the candidate with thunderous sloganeering and bursting of crackers. “Some people ask me why they should vote for the LDF given the fact that the Congress is there for taking on the BJP,” Rajeeve started his short speech. “In Madhya Pradesh, where the Congress is in power with Kamal Nath as the chief minister, five Muslim Youths are behind bars. The crime they did was just selling meat. The Congress and the BJP are competing to appease those with Hindutva ideology. If you elect me, I promise that I would continue to keep vigil against the move to destroy the secular fabric and democracy of the country,” he said to thunderous applause.

At Mehboob Colony, Rajeeve greeted the people and shook their hands. “People found that the BJP’s rule intolerable, so they voted for Congress in states like Madhya Pradesh. But, the Congress also disappointed the voters,” he said. “While Pinarayi government is building houses for the poor, Congress chief minister Kamal Nath is constructing sheds for cows,” he said.

At Kunnumpuram, people were already waiting for Rajeeve. “At Alangad, an elderly woman in her nineties held my hands and said, ‘we will win.’ She said ‘we’. Similarly, in Fort Kochi, a kid told me ‘we will win.’ Yes, people stand by the LDF. They see it as not just my victory, but their victory. Let’s stand united and fight,” he said, before climbing on to his jeep.