Kummanam Rajasekharan’s political rivals ridiculed him when he
quit as Mizoram Governor to contest the election. The veteran Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) leader who cut his teeth in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
is lately found to be giving Congress party’s Shashi Tharoor a good run for his
money in Thiruvananthapuram parliamentary constituency. The latest pre-poll
survey conducted by a regional news channel (AZ research election opinion
survey-part 3) released on Sunday night shows Kummanam, the 66-year-old
hardliner, gaining a lead over Tharoor in the run-up to the polls. Not only
that, the BJP has reason to cheer up, as the survey predicts BJP candidates,
although they are poised to face defeat, bettering their poll percentage in
several constituencies when compared to the last general election.
The survey predicts that NDA will poll 40% votes in
Thiruvananthapuram as against UDF’s 34% and LDF’s 25%. Former state minister
C.Divakaran of the CPI is the LDF candidate for Thiruvananthapuram.
Kerala votes on April 23.
Tharoor is seeking re-election for the third consecutive time from
Thiruvananthapuram.
A visit to the constituency last month showed voters in large
numbers in assembly seats like Vattiyoorkavu preferring BJP. However, some said
that assembly segments like Kovalam and Neyyatinkara would come to the rescue
of Tharoor. Although it appeared then that the over-confident Tharoor is on the
way to his hat-trick win in the constituency the trend is lately found to be
changing.
Lately his electioneering has hit the stumbling blocks as
allegedly many Congress leaders were unwilling to campaign for him. This seems
to have been solved, for the time being, with AlCC stepping in and directing
the state Congress leaders to step up campaigning for Tharoor. A meeting
convened by the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) on Sunday reportedly
conveyed the message that the AICC will not accept Tharoor going behind the BJP
in the election. Moreover, the AICC has appointed Nana Patole as an observer
for Thiruvananthapuram. Tharoor has meanwhile denied that he had asked the
leadership to appoint an observer for overseeing the poll campaigning.
In 2014, senior BJP leader O.Rajagopal managed to emerge close in
Thiruvananthapuram. While the winner Shashi Tharoor secured 297,806 votes,
Rajagopal racked up 282,336 votes. The CPI candidate Bennet Abraham had
to be content with the third position.
ENDS
