JOIN USSabarimala women entry to actor's popularity among deciding factors in Thiruvananthapuram
From the Sabarimala issue to the popularity of an actor-turned-politician, many factors are favouring the BJP in at least three constituencies in Kerala's capital Thiruvananthapuram, even as the Congress cast a shadow over BJP's prospects at its lone sitting seat by fielding a popular leader.
In the 2016 Assembly elections, Thiruvananthapuram witnessed not only BJP opening its account in Kerala Assembly with veteran leader O Rajagopal winning from the Nemom constituency in the city, but the saffron party also came second at Vattiyoorkavu and Kazhakkoottam constituencies.
However, Rajagopal only won with a margin of 8,600 votes last time, so he has to sweat it out to retain the party's lone sitting seat.
Positive trends for BJP
In the subsequent Lok Sabha polls and local body polls, BJP managed to maintain a favourable trend in these regions, except for the party coming third in the Vattiyoorkavu bypolls in 2019, which was mainly reportedly due to a low profile of the party candidate.
This time, BJP fielded former state president and Mizoram former governor Kummanam Rajasekharan as party candidate at Nemom. In a surprise move, Congress fielded sitting Lok Sabha MP of Vadakara in North Kerala K Muraleedharan against Rajasekharan with the aim of defeating BJP in its lone sitting seat.
This move seems to be working in favour of the Congress as the party cadres were enthused over having Muraleedharan in the fray. Muraleedharan is the son of former Chief Minister K Karunakaran, who was an MLA of Nemom. Muraleedharan also won from the adjacent Vattiyoorkavu twice, in 2011 and 2016 Assembly polls, and in 2016, the runner-up was Kummanam Rajasekharan. The CPM is also making an all-out bid by fielding former MLA V Sivankutty.
A general feeling among the voters is that entry of Muraleedharan had changed the pro-BJP wave prevailing in the constituency as the leader is equally capable as Rajasekharan in wooing the Hindu vote banks of the constituency. He is also a more popular figure than Rajasekharan. The CPM camps are hoping that the tight contest between Congress and BJP may help the CPM by way of split votes.
In the adjacent Vattiyoorkavu, CPM's sitting MLA and former Mayor V K Prasanth is seeing a trend in his favour as he is better connected with the constituency than his opponent Veena S Nair of Congress and V V Rajesh of the BJP.
However, BJP has high hopes at Kazhakkootam where Union Minister of State for External Affair V Muraleedharan lost by just 7,300 votes in 2016 to CPM's Kadakampally Surendran. The Sabarimala women entry issue is a key issue in the constituency. BJP's Shobha Surendran came second in the Palakkad constituency in 2016 and this also raises her confidence levels.
Thiruvananathapuram constituency is witnessing some twists this time as BJP fielded a new entrant to the party, actor Krishnakumar. Though he was generally considered to be weak candidate against two-time sitting MLA V S Sivakumar of the Congress and former MLA Antony Raju of the Left Front, some recent poll surveys indicated that Krishnakumar was posing a tough fight. The reason is said to be his influence among the middle-class women voters as he is doing a positive character in an ongoing mega television serial.
Cricketer S Sreesanth was BJP's candidate in the constituency in 2016. Though he could finish only in third place, he was less than 1,000 votes behind Left Front's Antony Raju. This time, the row over a deep-sea fishing trolled project of the Kerala government may affect Antony Raju's prospects as the fishing community of the coastal areas is a key vote bank of the constituency that generally favours Congress.