Kochi: Entrepreneur Sabu Jacob’s Twenty20 is sending shock waves among politicians in Kerala for his skyrocketing popularity.
After winning four panchayats, he is planning to foray into assembly elections due in a couple years from now. Sabu lured people through his heavily subsidised hypermarket helping him snatch power of Kizhakkambalam panchayat in the commercial capital of Ernakulam in 2015.
Subsequent elections saw him grabbing power of four panchayats. His party came close to winning the assembly polls in Kizhakambalam in 2021.Sabu’s garments business Kitex group, listed in India bourses, earns an annual turnover of Rs 815 crore and there is no need for him to make money from politics.
Sabu has redefined politics in Kerala which he is planning to turn into a model state if voted to power in 2026 Assembly Elections. In the manifesto for Lok Sabha polls, Twenty20 has promised to turn the debt ridden Kerala into a financially robust state if voted to power in next assembly elections in 2026.
The Lok Sabha manifesto of Twenty20 said it will offer a pension of Rs 5,000 to elderly citizens, set up food security outlets across the state, sell medicines at 50 percent discount, deal mercilessly with criminals, decommission 125 year old Mullaperiyar dam, reduce number of ministers from 21 to 11, give packages for auto rickshaw and taxi drivers, offer fuel subsidy to fishermen, packages to rubber, paddy farmers, upgrade Kerala cities on par with Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai.
Other plans are to ban politics in education institutions, attract back investors who left the state due to an unfriendly political atmosphere, build fences to prevent wild animals entering residential areas. Twenty20 will be a force to reckon with in the next assembly elections in the state.
