‘Missing candidates’ vexes opposing electoral campaigns

The “curious” case of political parties discovering their candidates missing from the voters’ list at the last minute is threatening to upend opposing campaigns in at least two corporations and one municipality as the deadline for filing nominations for the local body polls is nearing.

In Kozhikode, the Congress found itself in the lurch after it belatedly discovered, to its dismay, that the United Democratic Front’s high-profile mayoral candidate V.M. Vinu was not registered on the electoral rolls. He wasn’t on the rolls in 2020, either.

A Congress insider said Mr. Vinu was “almost” a consensus candidate, and finding a replacement for him at the last minute without ruffling feathers was likely to be a task rife with political and organisational complexities.

Vaishna Suresh of the Congress contesting from the Muttada ward of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation appears to be on the same boat as Mr. Vinu. Ms. Suresh publicly expressed disbelief that she had been struck off the list. (The CPI(M) had complained to election officials that she had given a rental address for enrolment and her vote was in another ward.)

Both Mr. Vinu and Ms. Suresh have appealed for re-inclusion on the electoral rolls.

In Kannur, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) scrambled to find a last-minute replacement for Jabbar Ibrahim, the LDF’s candidate for the Bakkalam division of the Anthoor municipality, after the party realised belatedly that he did not appear on the voters’ list. After much hand-wringing, the lot finally fell on local leader T.V. Premarajan.

Both the LDF and the UDF also found themselves in an awkward position, having to explain to voters a possible last-minute change of candidate. Both fronts also confront the discomfiting task of taking down posters, hoardings, graffiti, and social media branding at the last minute to make way for new ones. The political gaffe, both fronts worry, might have a ripple effect in other key battleground districts.

The Congress, mutedly, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] have stridently blamed its party workers for not being sufficiently zealous about identifying and re-enfranchising voters struck off the electoral rolls.

For one, CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan, at an election convention in Kannur on Monday, somewhat harshly reminded party workers of their “political and moral duty” to knock on doors and enrol voters.

All India Congress Committee secretary, organisation, K.C. Venugopal, MP, said he saw a pattern in election officials striking UDF candidates from the voters’ list. “The CPI(M) and its service organisations are doing what the BJP did to Congress candidates in other regions,” he stated.