From Kerala’s first woman IPS officer who finished her career right at the top as DGP (fire and rescue) and a woman known for making porottas at a roadside thattukada (roadside stall) to the mapuln whose harrowing experience inspired the movie Manjummel Boys, next month’s local body elections in Kerala will see a diverse and colourful array of candidates in the fray.
In Thiruvananthapuram, the BJP has fielded former DGP (fire and rescue) Sreelekha, who was recently appointed a state vice-president of the party. The former police officer is contesting from the Sasthamangalam division, where the Congress’s state headquarters is located, and there is a buzz in the party as well as outside that she could be the mayoral candidate if the party win a majority this time in the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation, where the party is now the primary Opposition.
“The party has given me a chance to work at the grassroots level. Corruption-free governance and developed Thiruvananthapuram is our slogan. The aim is to win the elections,’’ says Sreelekha, who was a college lecturer and worked in a bank before joining the police. After retirement, she courted controversy when she said that she, as the director general of prisons, gave special consideration and better facilities to actor Dileep while he was in jail in the 2017 case of abduction and sexual assault of an actor in a moving vehicle. Her statement calling prime accused Pulsar Suni a “habitual offender” even led to an FIR against her.
More than 200 km away, porotta-maker Naisya Latheef is the Congress’s candidate in the Kakkanad division of Thrikkakara municipality. “My division has 1,135 voters and more than half of them live in high-rises. Many of them are familiar with me. They have seen me making porotta in the evenings, day after day. I don’t find any trouble in connecting with the middle-class and upper-middle-class voters. From early morning to noon, I do the legwork, flitting in and out of apartments, meeting voters. From 4 pm till 11 pm, I will be at the eatery beating dough for porotta. Voters tell me I should not give up this job,’’ she says.
In Ernakulam’s Eloor municipality, the Congress has handpicked Subash Chandran, whose miraculous escape from the Guna Caves in Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu in 2006 inspired the 2024 blockbuster Manjummel Boys. “I have been a Congress worker for years. Even before the movie was released, I was a familiar face in Eloor and its cultural activities. However, I don’t want to attribute my candidature to the movie’s success,’’ Chandran says.
Not just movie subjects, actor Poojappura Radhakrishnan, whose acting credits include the 2021 movie Drishyam 2 and the 2006 movie Lion starring Dileep, is the LDF candidate from the Jagathi division of Thiruvananthapuram. His party, Kerala Congress (B), is led by actor-turned-minister K B Ganesh Kumar.
Another interesting candidate in the Left camp is CPI(M)’s Deepa Suresh who is a member of the Haritha Karma Sena, an army of women sanitation workers in the state. Suresh is contesting from the Pangappara division of the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation. Each month, about 33,000 members of the Sena go door to door across the state to collect non-biodegradable waste and dispatch it for processing.
In the past, political parties have fielded women who were part of the Kudumbasree Mission, the state’s flagship poverty alleviation mission, especially when reservation of women in local bodies was hiked from 33% to 50% in 2010. The 2020 election saw parties field several MGNREGS women workers, and this time it is the Haritha Karma Sena, whose members have become familiar faces in households across the state.
“We need no introduction as every household in the ward is familiar with me. I know every house and its members. Both voters and the Sena members know each other. Many Sena members are contesting the elections this time,” says Deepa, who has been with the Sena for the last four years.
In the Vayalar division of Alappuzha district panchayat, the Congress has fielded Arunima S Kurup, who is the state general secretary of its student wing KSU and also a transwoman. However, she is not the only transwoman fielded by the party. In the Pothancode division of the Thiruvananthapuram district panchayat, one of its candidates is Amaya Prasad.
While local body elections are often the stepping stones for those looking to build a career in politics, this time, four former MLAs have returned to the grassroots to revive theirs. Former MLA Sabarinath is the Congress’s star candidate in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, while another ex-MLA of the party, Anil Akkara, is contesting from the Adattu panchayat, which was his turf before he became a legislator in 2016. Senior CPI(M) leader and former MLA K C Rajagopal is contesting from the Mezhuveli panchayat, which he served as the president in the 1980s, while former MLA R Lathadevi of the CPI, the wife of Civil Supplies minister G R Anil, is the LDF candidate in the Chadayamangalam division of Kollam district panchayat.