Poll fever hits Mumbai, Keralites fly home
About 5,000 voters belonging to the North Kerala constituency of Manjeswaram are getting ready to travel to their home state to vote in the Assembly elections scheduled for April 13.
Manjeswaram is witnessing a tight contest between the Indian Union Muslim League of the opposition United Democratic Front, the CPI(M) and the BJP. In fact, it is one of the constituencies in which the BJP has invested lot of hopes.
With the BJP trying hard to bring back voters settled in Karnataka, the IUML and the CPI(M) are also doing their best to lure voters living in Mumbai.
In fact, the candidates of the IUML and CPI(M) landed in Mumbai the other day to address the voters. The IUML candidate and businessman, Mr P.B. Abdul Razaq, spoke to voters and party sympathisers in the Muslim doninated area of Dongri in South Mumbai while Mr C.H. Kunhambu of the Left Democratic Front campaigned among voters at Colaba. His meeting was arranged by the local unit of the CPI(M).
“We never miss a single election and everyone is very conscious of their right to vote,” says Mr K.P. Moidunmy, a businessman of Dongri and a member of the IUML. “We will all be going together to Kerala.”
There are about 25 lakh Kerallites living in Mumbai, from Colaba to Palghar. Most of them are from South Malabar, Kasargode and Kannur.
“Keralites in Mumbai are very politically conscious and they arrange special buses to go for voting,” says Mr Bhupesh Babu, a civil engineer. Mr P.K.Ravindranath, a former journalist and author, had to throw out two Malayali customers from his restaurant in Andheri after they got into a fight over the CM, Mr V.S. Achuthanandan.
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