Local body byelections usually pass by without much noise, but the three major fronts are leaving no stone unturned for the byelection to the Sreevaraham ward of the Thiruvananthapuram corporation, treating it as a dress rehearsal for the local body elections later this year. Over the past few weeks, the campaigns for the byelections to be held on February 24 have witnessed the presence of major leaders.
The spirited fight belie the future of the Sreevaraham ward which will technically cease to exist in its current form in a few months along with a few other wards, when the ward delimitation exercise is completed. The delimitation also happens to be one of the major campaign issues with the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accusing the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) of erasing the Sreevaraham ward with an aim to make electoral gains. The LDF candidate V.Harikumar, meanwhile, is the convenor of an action council which demanded a rollback of the decision at the delimitation commission’s public hearing in Thiruvananthapuram district on Saturday.
The byelection was necessitated by the passing away of the sitting councillor S.Vijayakumar of the Communist Party of India (CPI). Harikumar, also of the CPI, has been an active presence in the region as a member of the CPI Manacaud local committee and as an office bearer of the Kisan Sabha.
“We are confident of retaining the ward on the strength of the developmental works that we have carried out here. After the previous councillor’s death, Mayor Arya Rajendran intervened to ensure all the ongoing developmental works were completed. The Cabinet has also cleared the ₹8.8 crore renovation work of the Manacaud-Valiyathura- Airport Road, which passes through the ward. As for the ward delimitation, it is a decision of the delimitation commission and our candidate has demanded that the name change be reconsidered,” says Jailkumar, CPI(M) Chala area secretary, who is one of the campaign coordinators.
The BJP, which lost the ward by 202 votes in 2020 after holding it for five years, is looking at ways to reclaim its former stronghold. The party has fielded R.Mini, a former councillor, who came second in the ward in 2020. BJP Parliamentary party leader M.R.Gopan says that the ward delimitation could have been limited to the Kazhakuttam area, which would not have caused difficulties to a majority of the people living in the city, especially with regard to address change in their official documents.
“The LDF has done the ward delimitation by especially targeting the wards which the BJP has been winning. They fear losing power in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation in the local body polls later this year. There has been no developmental works in the Sreevaraham ward for the past 4 years. The road maintenance work across the ward was carried out after the byelections were announced,” says Mr.Gopan.
The United Democratic Front (UDF) has not been able to put up a fight in the ward in the past decade, reflecting a general trend across the corporation, with their total numbers in the Corporation falling from over 40 to 10 now. In 2020, the UDF candidate B.Sureshkumar, who came third, trailed by over 1,000 votes to the winning candidate. The UDF has again fielded Sureshkumar for the byelection.
“The Sreevaraham ward has been ignored for the past decade with both the LDF and the BJP unable to carry out any developmental works. The people here are clearly fed up with both of them. The last minute road tarring and waste management efforts ahead of the elections cannot paper over these facts,” says P.Padmakumar, the UDF Parliamentary party leader.
Published – February 23, 2025 06:42 pm IST