C Sadanandan Master is the BJP candidate in Kootaparamba, a constituency in Kerala's Kannur district.
C Sadanandan Master is contesting elections for the first time. He is the BJP candidate in Kootaparamba, a constituency in Kerala's Kannur district, known for its violent politics.
Mr Sadanandan's legs were hacked off in 1994, he says by activists of Left party CPM, because he had shifted political allegiance to the BJP.
22 years later, Mr Master's visits to the homes of BJP workers allegedly killed by Left activists are a crucial part of his election campaign. He points to his prosthetic legs as he tells NDTV, "My candidature in itself a reminder of the CPM's kind of politics and a warning to them. They don't want anyone else to grow here and so kill those who oppose them. We are creating political pressure on the CPM."
In another part of Kannur, four CPM workers are in hospital after being attacked with swords allegedly by BJP activists. They say they were trying to put up election posters of their party's candidate in an area dominated by the Rashtriya Swaymsevak Sangh or the RSS, the BJP's ideological mentor.
In another part of Kannur, four CPM workers were attacked with swords allegedly by BJP activists.
Kannur has party villages - entire villages that swear loyalty to one political party and if people from a rival party even try to campaign there, they do so at their own risk.
"Thousands of our cadre have been killed by the BJP. What we do is only out of resistance to what the BJP is doing to us. People are seeing through the BJP's tactics because Kerala voters are very aware and the BJP won't succeed with its communal polarisation", said Shailaja Teacher, Mr Master's rival candidate from the CPM in Koothuparambu.
C Sadanandan Master's visits to the homes of BJP workers allegedly killed by Left activists are a crucial part of his election campaign.
Kerala votes on May 16 and the CPM hopes to oust Congress-led alliance UDF and reclaim power. The BJP has so far been a minor player in Kerala but wants to change that in these elections.
In Kannur, a Left stronghold, the high stakes means people are bracing for more violence as campaigning heats up. The district has witnessed 24 political murders in last 10 years and memorials to those killed are at the centre of election activity.
One of the largest memorials is in Koothuparambu, dedicated to five young CPM workers killed in 1994 in police firing to protect a UDF minister MV Raghavan. His son is now contesting elections from the neighbouring Areekode constituency. As a CPM candidate.
"There is no heartburn. My father left CPM and joined UDF after forming his own party. He later wanted to return to CPM itself", says Nikesh Kumar, a journalist turned politician.