India, April 2 -- A unique election campaign is unfolding in Puthuppally, arguably the most closely watched constituency in Kerala's forthcoming Assembly elections. It is unique because it lacks the pomp and show usually associated with traditional poll campaigns.

Elections have always announced themselves in Puthuppally long before political parties finalised their candidates. Like elsewhere in the state, they arrived in waves of material. Massive plastic flex boards tied to trees, banners stretched across junctions, vinyl sheets nailed into public spaces, and loudspeakers mounted on vehicles cutting through villages from dawn to dusk. Campaigns did not merely communicate. They accumulated, layer upon layer, until the constituency itsel...