Turf gets tough in Thiruvananthapuram, polls about returning migrants, jobs

INC's Shashi Tharoor looks for a tough hattrick against the Left and BJP

The public parking outside the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport is prime real estate, of political variety. In keeping with Kerala's long tradition of labour unions in almost all professions, auto drivers have partitioned the parking across party lines. The respective flags of the unions of the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM) are close to the main gate. However, the newest and ostensibly taller flag poll outside the premises, sports a flag of the Bharathiya Mazdoor Sangh, the national ruling party’s trade union, which has increasingly encroached upon the membership of the two larger unions. 

Kerala's capital goes to polls on April 23, along with the rest of the state's 20 Lok Sabha seats. In Thiruvananthapuram, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expecting a higher tally than before.

The job of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who is eyeing a third term from the city’s lone Lok Sabha seat, will be tougher, especially when one takes into account when voter apprehensions over the shrinking job market and a fierce electoral fight with the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) is taken into consideration. 

Kerala has more than 2.1 million citizens settled across the world. But according to the Thiruvananthapuram-based Centre for Development Studies, 1.3 million Kerala citizens returned home in 2018. 

“Among all this, the BJP’s strength in the city has risen since 2015 when it became the second largest party in the local municipal council. They will get more votes now than the two larger parties,” auto driver Joseph Panan says. 

Workers on the ground have engaged in fighting over the lucrative auto routes across the city that are tightly controlled by the unions, a hallmark of grassroots labour movement in the state, he adds. 

Uncertain times return

“The turf war has become fierce with new drivers joining the unions. Some are from rural areas, affected by floods, but others are from the Gulf, back without jobs. These new guys are susceptible to promises by the BJP,” tea seller Raju Ratheesh says.

A series of strategic nationalisation policies in Saudi Arabia and increasingly higher quotas being allocated for specific job sectors by the United Arab Emirates has created a crisis of returning migrants. In fact, Riyadh’s decree to allow women to drive in the conservative kingdom has reportedly affected the fortunes of more than 500,000 drivers from the state, Arun Gopi, a former driver from Jeddah, says.

Despite having only one member in the state legislative assembly out of 140, the BJP’s local candidate and former party president for Kerala, Kummanam Rajasekharan, is optimistic about winning on the jobs plank, and has spent almost as much as Shashi Tharoor for campaigning, local news reports say.

While the electoral storm rages around him, 27-year-old Shanto Thomas has marriage on his mind. An engineering graduate from one of the scores of private colleges in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, he's been searching for a job for the past six months. "Things haven’t changed much when it comes to family and tradition. While girls are now allowed to wait till 25 years before their parents get them married off, as a rule of thumb they continue to prefer guys based in the Gulf,” he says. 

Tangled demographic tussle

Despite Shanto's unwavering support for the LDF candidate, Communist Party of India’s C Divakaran is tipped to lose, local poll pundits believe. Widely considered a lightweight, Divakaran is an MLA from Nedumangad near Thiruvananthapuram, and is banking on the party's traditional support base to push him up the poll ladder, cleric Muhammed Faisal Musliyar says. 

On whether religion and demography stand out as an important issues, Musliyar, who manages a mosque in the Muslim-majority Beemapally, vehemently denies. His mosque is under the religious jurisprudence of the politically active Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama. The religious body is backed by the state’s third largest party, the Indian Union Muslim League, a Congress ally, which has called its constituents to vote out the LDF.

“It’s impossible for the BJP to enter Kerala. Here, the issue is with deep-rooted party lines," he adds, after mentioning that a 23-year old IUML worker has been missing in the neighboring Attingal for the past week, after allegedly being kidnapped by LDF elements.

Ironically, the other minority group may be heading the opposite way. While the powerful Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC) has asked priests and church officials to maintain neutrality, the Congress alleges that south Kerala’s large Christian population is being weaned towards the LDF. 

Funds mismanagement

Another issue stoking public anger in Thiruvananthapuram is the alleged mismanagement of funds by the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s government, meant for flood relief in rural areas. “From foreign governments, to Malayalis living abroad, to schoolchildren going door to door collecting funds, so many people donated their money. Eight months on, many families are still huddled in makeshift government quarters from Idukki to Wayanad, waiting for the Rs 10,000 that had been promised to each,” restaurant owner Ajeeth Menon fumes. 

The floods affected 5.5 million people across 981 villages and killed nearly 500, according to government statistics, and remain an emotional issue in the state.

This anger has been channelized by a local WhatsApp campaign started by citizens that has chastised elected representatives for spending public funds on less important issues. “He spent his MP Local Area Development funds for establishing smart lights on city roads and providing school buses to private schools while city neighbourhoods are fighting a drinking water crisis,” poll graffiti lampooning Tharoor in front of the MP’s city office in Pulimoodu.

Tharoor has seen his vote share reduce from 44 per cent to 34 per cent between the 2009 and 2014 general elections. But, even though the BJP had the second-highest vote share in the last election, he has continued to train his guns on his communist opponent, instead. The city will decide his fate on Tuesday.

Painful homecoming: Districts with Highest Return Migrants

• Ernakulam
• Thiruvananthapuram
• Palakkad
• Kozhikode
• Thrisshur