With the Kerala Assembly elections just round the corner, candidates contesting the elections are trying to come up with out-of-the-box ideas to impress the electorate.
Politicians engaged in puppet shows, playing percussion instruments, playing outdoor sports like football and cleaning the roads are some of the rare sights that one might see during election time. Candidates have realised that they can no longer solely depend on conventional methods like door-to-door campaigning to win the elections, and as a result, they are doing all that it takes to convince the voters to vote in favour of them.
Here is a set of candidates who believe in direct communication with their voters. This includes Cyriac Thomas, UDF candidate from Peerumade and M M Mani, who is the LDF candidate from Udumbanchola. While the former has been sending out direct letters, the latter makes direct phone calls to his voters.
Going green is another popular trend in this election season. Pinarayi Vijayan makes sure that he plants a sapling after every speech he gives at a booth centre. Further, Advocate S Sarath, Congress candidate from Cherthala, kick-started his campaign by planting 25 saplings with the help of booth committee members from his constituency.
This, however, is not something that is exclusive to politicians. District Collectors of Wayanad and Kozhikode have urged first time voters to make their first vote a memorable one by planting saplings in their respective election booths.
For most of the BJP candidates, selfie is the new cool. Kerala’s BJP chief Kummanam Rajasekharan has been carrying out a selfie campaign, wherein he takes selfies with his voters and encourages them to post it on social media pages. The party will then re-share these pictures on his Facebook page.
LDF candidates Dr TM Thomas Issac (Alappuzha) and P Thilothaman (Cherthala) have been taking out waste and cleaning roads and public places from the time they got into the election campaign mode.
In the Azhikode constituency, LDF candidate Nikesh Kumar and UDF candidate KM Shaji are fighting it out through video campaigns. While Nikesh has released a video campaign titled “ Good Morning Azhikode”, Shaji has brought out another video campaign named “ Ente Azhikode. Ente Abhimanam” (My Azhikode. My Pride).
Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, who is fighting the elections from the Haripad constituency, has taken to puppet shows to talk about the various achievements of his government.
While LDF candidate from Aroor, A M Ariff, started his campaign by playing percussion instruments during one of the festivals in a temple, T Siddique , UDF candidate from Kunnamangalam constituency, has been playing football, volleyball and cricket matches to spread the word.
In an attempt to woo the Gulf Malayalee voters, UDF candidates like V T Balram, K Praveen Kumar and Abid Hussain Thangal have already carried out conventions in the Gulf countries. K Sudhakaran, UDF candidate from Uduma is also planning a Gulf visit on April 21 and 22. With the help of chartered flights, political leaders are hoping to bring the expats to Kerala on the day of voting.
With just a few days left to polls, Kerala will see intense political campaigning and there will be a lot more pressure on the candidates to come up with innovative campaign ideas.