Pinarayi Vijayan is leading from the front

Thiruvananthapuram: After addressing the LDF conventions in various districts, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has got down to some serious business of taking stock of the election work at the ground level.

The Chief Minister had attended Kollam Parliamentary Constituency committee meeting on Sunday. During the meeting the committee members gave a detailed account of the activities undertaken by the party workers as part of K.N. Balagopal’s campaigning. The party leaders had taken feedback from local level earlier. The meeting discussed the initial reaction of the electorate towards the candidate, the activities undertaken by the constituency committee, LDF constituency level and Assembly level conventions.

 The meeting also chalked out the future course of action including the setting up of booth committees. The LDF has decided to complete the process of setting up booth committees by March 20.

Since the RSP had declared that N.K. Premachandran would be its candidate nearly two months ago, the CPM could not get the advantage of announcing its list ahead of UDF and BJP like it did in other constituencies.

The CPM camp is confident of victory on the strength of its ground support. In Assembly elections, the LDF had secured a lead of 1.70 lakh votes winning seven seats. Besides, it rules 61 panchayats, all 11 block panchayts, Kollam Corporation and four municipalities.

But political observers say the Lok Sabha polls is a different ball game. Premachandran who defeated M.A. Baby in 2014, is a formidable candidate.

While the CPM has accused Premachandran of being “Sanghi”, the sitting MP says the accusation was because his firm stand on Triple Talaq issue in Parlia-ment received wide support from Muslim community.

Meanwhile, Chief Mini-ster reviewed the election work in Pathana-mthitta constituency on Monday. At the parliamentary constituency committee meeting, he heard the views of leaders on the mood of electorate.

The meeting chalked out campaign strategy for the coming days including constitution of booth committees. LDF’s Veena George is taking on sitting MP Anto Antony here.

Observers say a clear picture will emerge only after BJP announces its candidate. The saffron party is confident of good show here due to Sabarimala issue.

They say though the BJP is expected to increase its vote share, it will have do something miraculous to secure victory. In 2014, BJP candidate M.T. Ramesh had secured 1,38,954 votes (15.98 per cent).

The fact that the Chief Minister himself attended the meetings in Kollam and Pathana-mthitta, clearly indicates the importance being given by CPM to each constituency. With the party banking mainly on Kerala to improve it’s over all tally in Parliament, the stakes are high this time.