Lok Sabha elections 2019: Polls over, candidates in Kerala launch cleanliness drive
The Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Ernakulam, union minister K J Alphons, was seen whitewashing defaced walls in his constituency on Thursday.
A handful of candidates across party lines have pledged to recycle existing poll material, and clean up walls where political pamphlets and posters were plastered, after polling for all the 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala ended on April 23.
In Ernakulam, Left Democratic Front candidate P Rajeev started a campaign in the party supporters’ WhatsApp groups, called Let Us Clean Ernakulam.
He asked supporters to clear up the posters and wall paintings within two days. The response was immediate, said Rajeev, with people posting photos of cleared walls.
“It is our responsibility to clean up,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Thiruvananthapuram, Kummanam Rajasekharan, former Governor of Mizoram, is planning to recycle shawls and other cloth gifts he received while campaigning, to make bags, towels and pillow covers.
“During my campaign, I received around one lakh cloth gifts. In every meeting I used to get 50-100 shawls. I will convert them into products like cloth bags, pillow covers and handkerchiefs and distribute them. Our workers have started segregating these into piles,” said Rajasekharan, who contested against two-time Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor from the Congress.
A senior Congress leader who did not want to be identified said his party preserved most of the banners and flags to recycle and use in other parts of the country.
The Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Ernakulam, union minister K J Alphons, was seen whitewashing defaced walls in his constituency on Thursday.
“Personally I feel one shouldn’t deface walls with posters and graffiti. But when I landed in Ernakulam as a candidate walls were full. Later I was also forced to do a bit,” he said.
