It is a one-theme show in Kalamassery. At Industries Minister P Rajeev’s afternoon meeting at the “Workshop” bus stop in the major industrial hub near Kochi, even the small talk is about development.

Without as much as a hello, an enthusiast greets you with a straight question: “Have you heard how Rajeev found land for the Seaport Airport Road?” Introducing himself as an old comrade of the CPI(M) candidate since SFI days, he has barely answered his own question when his companion fires the next, “Do you know how he got HMT’s surplus land released to relocate Kerala High Court?”

Before this one sinks in comes the next on how Rajeev revived the Cochin Cancer Research Centre, long in limbo.  In half an hour with the two comrades in arms, you get a political CV that merits lifelong voter loyalty.

In 10 years as MLA, of which the last five have been as minister, Rajeev has done a Deng if not a Xi in Kalamaserry, says a third enthusiast, referring to Chinese President Deng Xiaoping, who ushered in economic reforms, and current President Xi Jinping.

A longtime resident of this early industrial township, this elder has seen ventures in their bloom till the 1970s and then the painful decline. The place eventually fell off the map, and the state’s IT and tourism initiatives bypassed it. In the last 10 years, the township has visibly recovered, spurred by the parallel boom of adjoining Kochi.

The old-world business capital of Kerala has lately come alive as a true metropolis showcasing multiple ventures from rail and water metros to the country’s only art Biennale.  Kalamassery has just what the water-bound, land-scarce Kochi needs: surplus land waiting to be freed up from the hold of stagnant industry. This is where Rajeev comes in.

Is there a vision paper? The answer is drowned by a sudden commotion in the gathering. A celebrity arrives in a black BMW.  Secular spiritualist Swami Sandeepananda Giri has come to cheer the candidate. Rajeev is known for his wide range of friends. Closer to the polling day (April 9),  his voters will see a true sample of this fraternal spectrum in the constituency. From party stalwart Prakash Karat to literary and film stars, many of the minister’s friends are scheduled to come and speak.

Everything about the campaign is well managed, except the time. The candidate is several minutes late. A youngster in the audience, accompanying his mother, quips, “Gift Rajeev uncle an HMT watch.”  Before one can check if the local HMT unit makes watches, “uncle” arrives. He makes up for lost time by cutting down the speech to a pithy statement on his idea of composite development that is “incomplete without high social, cultural and secular values”.

Next noon, elsewhere in the constituency, Rajeev’s main rival, the Muslim League’s V E Abdul Gafoor, takes even longer to turn up to greet a casual crowd of Congress-led coalition workers. His plank is no less developmental, and that is thanks entirely to his father, V K Ibrahim Kunju, a multiple-term MLA who, as the Public Works minister, built 19 bridges in the constituency.

How does this compare to Rajeev’s promise? The answer comes from a visibly Congress campaign manager, “No election is won on infrastructure alone. There are substructures, sub-sub structures…” Read community, caste equations, and a third NDA candidate who can split votes, M B Binu of the

Bharath Dharma Jana Sena.