What do their offices and their environs say about political parties? E P Unny does some vaastu sleuthing in Kanyakumari

To figure out this poll scene, take a crash course in vaastu. In its esoteric scheme of things, sheer location counts and few places are as uniquely located as Kanyakumari, the country’s southernmost constituency.

Further, its three main contenders for the Lok Sabha work out of structures that are as telling as their occupants. Parvatipuram, a middle-class residential quarter of district centre Nagercoil, looks like jaded suburbia but it is no overbuilt maze where you’d lose your way. But try looking for CPI(M) and you run into BMS. Arch rival BJP’s labour wing has a freshly spruced up building, complete with banners, posters and hangers-on. The sole sign in the neighbourhood of anything like a political outfit. You have to retrace your steps and go way down a dipping lane before the Left party’s office pops into view. Over a partly built-up basement, standing on concrete pillars, the modest district unit also houses the staff of sitting MP Bellarmin who is defending his seat. Currently, the pillar that props him up is AIADMK, no longer the DMK-Congress front.

This solves a major border problem for Kanyakumari’s comrades. They can attack the Congress as merrily as their counterparts in neighbouring Kerala. Also with UPA links severed just in time, they can blame the Centre for all things going wrong in Sri Lanka. More than the CPI(M), it is Tamil Nadu’s CPI, which is vocal about the Tamil cause, but if Jayalalithaa and new friend Vaiko raise the pitch and catch votes, Bellarmin won’t wince.

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