Nemom, April 7 -- As the afternoon sun began to retreat over the horizon, a flock of Congress workers and a few jeeps fitted with loudspeakers blaring the party's campaign song began to assemble outside the Pachalloor Juma Masjid, waiting for the candidate KS Sabarinadhan to arrive. The mosque is located on a narrow road running parallel to the National Highway-66, about eight kilometres from Thiruvananthapuram city, in the Nemom assembly constituency, one of the fiercely contested seats in poll-bound Kerala.

As the road clogs with evening traffic, soon enough, Sabarinadhan, a two-time former MLA and the son of late veteran Congress leader G Karthikeyan, arrives in a white Innova. The Congress cadres rush forward to garland him while som...