Campaigning in Velliyamattom panchayat is muted by consensus

THODUPUZHA: Midway through the 16 km route from Thodupuzha to Pannimattom, you will notice a sudden lull in campaigning in the panchayat elections if you go by flex boards and mike announcements. At Kalayanthani, you are entering the Velliyamattom panchayat where the campaign is muted by consensus.

There are no flex boards, no vehicles with blaring loudspeakers and not even graffiti on the walls. An all party meeting had taken a decision ahead of the elections that they will not use flex boards or loudspeakers. The UDF, LDF, BJP and others are party to the decision and they are by and large sticking to the agreement. Even the rebels (the Congress has five and Congressmen had clashed on the last date for submission of nominations) are not repudiating the agreement.

Small posters are allowed; but that too are being used only in small numbers across the panchayat. However, some candidates have sought to bypass the display limit by pasting several small posters to a single surface. At some places, posters hung from ropes have been torn off. It is not clear whether this was voluntary or done by the opposite camp in protest against the display exceeding the ‘norm’.

Public address systems are permitted to be used at public meeting attended by top leaders from outside the panchayats. Very few such meetings have taken place so far though some are expected to be organised towards the conclusion of the campaign. Besides, shops renting out public address systems have thrown the spanner in the works. They have launched a protest against the all-party decision that denied them a once-in-a- blue-moon bonanza. As part of the protest, they are refusing to rent out public address systems for campaign meetings attended by even State leaders in the panchayat.

The restrictions on campaigning is being obeyed by candidates contesting for the block and district panchayats councils too. But, they run a different mode of campaign outside Velliyamattom panchayat limits.

The voters of the panchayat are discerning, and that may be behind the all-party decision. They elected a Congress rebel in the past who went on to initiate several development projects in his ward. Towards the end of his term, the people garlanded him with currency notes.

The panchayat have 15 wards and four are reserved for Scheduled Tribes who constitute a significant part of the population in some of the wards.