Stephen Kayyar
Daijiworld Media Network - Kasargod (MS)
Kasargod, Apr 22: The district is all prepared for the Lok Sabha polls which will be held on Tuesday, April 23. 13,63,936 voters are going to exercise their rights. The polling booths are ready for the exercise and the necessary equipment for the 1,371 polling stations reached their respective destinations in the afternoon on Monday, April 22.
The distribution of equipment for respective polling stations is being held at the government college and the Padannakad Nehru College. The polling will be held from 7 am to 6 pm. Among the voters, 7,04,482 are women and 6,59,454 are men. 43 polling stations are identified as sensitive and special protection is provided for these polling stations.
Manjeshwar legislative constituency has the highest number of voters. Out of the total 2,12,086 voters, 1,05,463 are women and 1,06,645 are men. Paivalike government school polling booth, whikch falls under the 105th polling station under the limits of Paivalike gram panchayat has 1,385 voters. In the Valiaparamba Anganwadi polling station which is the 151st polling booth under Valiaparamba gram panchayat there are the least number of 226 voters. All the polling stations have EVM facility and basic infrastructure is provided in the polling booths.
Election for the Kasargod constituency has created lots of speculations this year due to the recent developments. This constituency, which is the safe haven for LDF for the past 30 years is a deciding factor also for UDF, which is led by LDF and Congress and BJP.
More than the development, the factors that were mainly used as weapons during the campaigning were the Sabarimala issue and the murder of two youth Congress activists that took place at Periya sometime ago. The Periya twin murder has foot the CPM on back foot. Though the party denied involvement initially in the murders, the arrest of its activists put the CPM in a watertight situation. The visit of senior Congress leaders including the AICC president Rahul Gandhi to the houses of Kripesh and Bharat Lal, the two slain activists of Congress had given new enthusiasm during the election campaign.
CPM has mainly kept the issues of communalism and the developments that the party has carried out in the last term in front of the voters, while the BJP raked up the Sabarimala issue and sought vote for forming once again Modi government at the center.
The fate of the candidates in this triangular contest will be decided by the voters on Tuesday, April 23. Raj Mohan Unnithan of UDF, K P Satishchandran of LDF, Kuntaru Ravish Tantry of BJP, Basheer Alady representing BSP are in the fray in addition to the five independent candidates.