By-election: Election fever grips Neyyattinkara

Monday, May 07, 2012: Battle lines have been drawn in Neyyattinkara Assembly constituency for the by-election with all the fronts entering the election fray and kick starting the poll campaign.
The announcement of candidates by UDF, LDF and BJP leaderships for the by-election to the Neyyattinkara constituency has set the political wheel moving.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is fielding senior party leader O Rajagopal for the upcoming by-election to Neyyattinkara Assembly seat which fell vacant following R Selvaraj’s resignation. BJP believes that by fielding a senior leader in Neyyattinkara the party can achieve a thumping victory in by-election.
Meanwhile the first worry of the CPI(M) is the fact that the LDF candidate’s rival will be Marxist renegade R Selvaraj, whose resignation as MLA representing Neyyattinkara and from the party on March 9 necessitated the by-election. Selvaraj’s candidature is a foregone conclusion but the only thing left to be known is whether he would be an official Congress candidate or an Independent.
The CPI(M) the other day declared F Lawrence, a member of the Parassala Block Panchayat and a comparatively unknown politician in Neyyattinkara, as the LDF candidate for the by-poll. Though Lawrence has several plus points in the community-ridden politics of the constituency, the CPI(M) will have to first carry out a special campaign to familiarise him with the electorate.
In the existing circumstances, the CPI(M) cannot even imagine losing the Neyyattinkara by-poll especially as it had already lost the March 17 by-election in Piravam leading to the restoration of the original strength (72) of the Congress-led ruling UDF in the 140-member State Assembly.
At the same time, the resignation of Selvaraj had brought the LDF strength down to 67 from 68.