The Hindu 20.10.2010
Tight contest in Nedumangad municipality
Staff Reporter
| Environment groups have an active presence in the taluk |
Majority of UDF candidates are young
LDF has fielded mostly veterans
Thiruvananthapuram: The Nedumangad taluk, which is on the cusp of developing into a major township, is witnessing a tight contest between the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the main Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) for control of its prestigious municipality council.
The candidates for both the fronts are on the last leg of their campaigning for the 39-seat council, currently controlled by the LDF.
Located around 20 km northeast of Thiruvananthapuram, Nedumangad town has traditionally been a trading centre for rubber and pepper. Rubber growing areas of Tamil Nadu border the largely pastoral taluk on its east. Dairy farmers, small-scale rubber and pepper growers, agricultural workers, rubber tappers and quarry workers make up a chunk of the taluk’s electorate.
The State government, with the help of the European Union, had set up a wholesale market in the township, realising how seriously the fluctuating prices of the cash crops could impact the local economy.
Off late, Nedumangad has seen sizeable private investment in terms of engineering colleges, water theme parks, exclusive housing sprawls and mini townships for the affluent, and tourist resorts, mainly in Vithura and at the foot hills of the Ponmudi hill resort.
The township is also the gateway to the Western Ghats, which encompass biodiversity hotspots such as the Agasthya Bio Reserve and the Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary.
The emerging importance of Nedumangad taluk makes the contest for its ruling council ever more fiercer.
Chairmanship
The chairmanship of the council is reserved for women. Apolitical environment groups, which oppose certain development initiatives on the ground that they are environmentally damaging and unsustainable, also seem to have a minor say in the outcome of the polls. Possibly sensing this significance, the LDF had deployed, arguably, its best campaigner and crowd-puller, Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan, to kick off the election campaign.
The LDF considers Nedumangad one of its traditional bastions. In the 30 years of its existence, the UDF has ruled the municipal council only twice.
However, the UDF senses a good chance of wresting control of the council this year. For one, the campaign headed by former MLA Palode Ravi has ensured that the UDF has no menace from rebel candidates in Nedumangad as witnessed in other neighbouring taluks.
A majority of the UDF candidates, about 20 of them, are locally influential young opinion leaders with a track record of active involvement in social and political issues.
The LDF has fielded mostly seasoned veterans. It highlights the developmental activities in the past five years, including housing and electricity for the poor, installation of biogas plants and development of parallel roads, in its all-out campaign for a successive term.
The UDF campaign draws attention to the allegedly pitiable condition of taluk hospitals and public health centres, degradation of the environment in the name of unchecked development, the “sad plight” of government schools and municipal markets as examples of the “misrule” of the LDF council.
