News and Views

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has failed to give any response to widespread criticism of his remarks comparing Kerala to Somalia in his address at the election rally in Tripoonithura on Wednesday.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said here on Wednesday that affidavits submitted to the State Election Commission by candidates showed that the CPI (M) had fielded candidates ranging from job fraudsters to Taliban model killers. The BJP too had candidates with criminal backgrounds, including one convicted for murder.

As election campaign reaches it crescendo in Kerala, leadership of the campaign is in the grip of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Opposition Leader V. S. Achuthanandan, though it was supposed to be a campaign led by triumvirates in both the Congress-led United Democratic Front and CPI (M)-led Left Democratic Front.

The Congress high command had entrusted preliminary vetting of candidates and campaign to joint leadership of the Chief Minister, KPCC president V. M. Sudheeran and Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala.

In CPI (M), Opposition Leader V. S. Achuthanandan, party State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and former State Secretary Pinarai Vijayan were to be on the forefront of the campaign.

Will glamour or sustained nursing of the constituency win the election? This is the question that pops up when watching the Assembly election contest at Pathanapuram in Kerala, where three actors are fighting it out.

Large number of voters, especially in the armed forces, who are eligible to exercise their franchise through postal ballots, fail to vote in the elections for various reasons.

Balloting Data show that a vast majority of persons who were eligible for voting through postal ballots either did not or could not vote in the Parliament elections in 2014. In the case of armed forces, there were reports that the postal ballots, in many cases, did not reach them in time.