Click to play videoKerala: Plachimada in Kerala has the single largest Coca-Cola bottling plant in the country. It shut down in March 2004, after reports suggested the plant had contaminated the soil and destroyed the water system in the area.
Since then, activists have kept a constant vigil in front of the closed factory gates.
Now with the assembly elections around the corner, villagers, who have been protesting against the plant for the last five years, feel their struggles might finally bear fruit.
The Coca Cola factory at Plachimada may be shut, but these men will call it quits only after Coke leaves their village for good.
Not surprisingly, the issue's taken centre stage in the forthcoming assembly election at the Chittoor constituency in Palakkad. People here believe the Left Democratic Front (LDF) is their best bet.
Says an activist, Sethuraman, "We have got a word from the LDF candidate that we will pack off the whole company if they win the vote. So trusting them we've decided to vote from them."
Nearly 400 families living in this village say that they will vote against the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) government.
The local panchayat controlled by the LDF had stood by these people to protest against the cola giant's presence. They say the factory sludge has contaminated the soil here, leaving them with no potable water.
LDF candidate, Chittoor Constituency, K Krishnankutty says, "We stood by the people and obviously they will stand by us when we need them. We will surely help them."
Though the cola company claims it has been supplying close to 70,000 litres of drinking water to the villages close by, it may be the case of too little, too late.
The Coca-Cola issue has given the LDF the much needed political mileage running into the assembly elections here that will translate into votes. However, what needs to be seen is to what extent the LDF candidate will actually work for the people.
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