Rice price, not quality, becomes main election issue in Kerala

“Just compare the quality of this rice with what we get from the ration shop,” head load workers attached to a remote Food Corporation of India (FCI) depot in North Kerala said to each other, examining a handful of rice from a sack they were unloading from train wagons for onward distribution through fair price shops in their district later this month.

The implication was obvious: the workers were comparing the high quality polished rice they were unloading — actually meant for fair price shops, but sometimes diverted into the open market — with what they have to buy as consumers from the government-run ration shops in the state.

However, in this election, for the politically and academically literate people of Kerala, it is the price and not so much the quality of rice that is the main election issue on Saturday.

Rice politics, normally associated with states that are economically backward, is the main poll campaign in this tiny South Indian state that derives its economic strength from Non Resident Indian earnings.

As Kerala goes to polls on April 13, United Democratic Front (UDF) — the Congress-led coalition of political parties that hopes to wrest the power from the Communist-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) — has promised a monthly quota of 25 kg of rice at Rs 1 to all families that are below the poverty line (BPL). The campaign was meant to counter LDF’s run-up-to- the-polls decision to extend its Rs 2 per kg rice scheme to all families, instead of just 35 lakh BPL families that benefit from the scheme currently.

The issue has gained prominence because of the intervention of electoral watchdog — Election Commission of India — which has decided that the LDF announcement violated the model code of conduct during elections. It stayed the government decision, which was overruled by the Kerala High Court, only to be reversed in favour of the Election Commission by the Supreme Court a few days ago.

The rice campaign has put anti-incumbency aside for the moment and as the election campaign enters the third and final phase, the ruling Left front seems to be readying for a close fight with UDF, with some political pundits even predicting a second term for LDF. The campaign has taken the wind out of all national issues like the telecom scam that had the central government in the dock.

LDF functionaries point out that the absence of anti-incumbency discussion is testament to the success of their development oriented policies during the five-year tenure of their government. Congress and UDF, they say, are trying to defend themselves from the recent image loss caused by the fresh revelations related to an old sex scandal involving a coalition partner (Muslim League) leader and the Supreme Court verdict against former Kerala Congress leader R Balakrishna Pillai on a corruption case.

Admitting that UDF has been slow on the campaign trail, Congress leaders say they are sure to take the ball back to LDF and emerge winners. The fight-back is led by Defence minister and former Kerala chief minister A K Antony who has started focusing on the anti-incumbency factor and the electorate’s “desire” for a change. “We agree that it is a tight fight. But there is a strong wave of support in favour of UDF from across the state. It will strengthen further as our national leaders (including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi) begin their campaign in the state,” M M Hassan spokesperson of Congress in the state told Business Standard.

In addition to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Congress-led coalitions, BJP and dozens of independent candidates are also among the 971 candidates that are contesting in the 140 Assembly constituencies of the State.