KOTTAYAM: The Idukki voters are waiting for a chance to vent their grievances over the devastation caused by the floods in August last year. Whether this will benefit sitting MP Joice George supported by the LDF or Dean Kuriakose of the UDF is difficult to predict.
The people of the district, who are mostly farmers, have suffered much from the calamity and are yet to recover from it as government aid has been slow in coming.
The Lok Sabha constituency comprises high range Assembly seats, including Devikulam, Idukki, Peermade and Udumbunchola and the low ranges of Thodupuzha, Muvattupuzha and Kothamangalam.
Joice George said that the people were suffering due to policies of the Central government.
The `5,000-crore package anno-unced by the LDF government will help normalise the situation, he said.
Last time he had the strong support of the High Range Samrakshana Samiti (HRSS) which is dormant now as most of the issues connected with the Kasturirangan report have been solved.
Moreover, he had benefited from disputes between former Idukki MP P.T. Thomas of the Congress and Idukki Bishop Mathew Anikuzhikattil which alienated a substantial votes of the Syro- Malabar Church members from the UDF. Mar Anikuzhikattil has resigned and the new Bishop John Nellikunnel has asked the priests to keep away from politics.
The Church which supported the LDF last time is passive now.
Dean Kuriakose, who lost to Joice by a margin of 50, 542 votes in 2014, is confident of winning this time. He said the LDF government had failed to tackle the crisis faced by the farmers and that the final notification of the Kasturirangan report had not been issued. The immediate priority will be to write off the loans taken by the farmers, he said.
