Celebrities hope to oust a seasoned politician
A seasoned politician, an actorturnedlegislator and a celebrity candidate the electoral battle in Kollam is expected to be the most intense this time with the three fronts working relentlessly to bolster their poll prospects.
The constituency has over 21,03,448 voters belonging to seven Assembly segments: Chavara, Punalur, Chadayamangalam, Kundara, Kollam, Eravipuram and Chathannur.
With all the three major candidates hitting the campaign trail in right earnest, electioneering in the constituency has now entered a feverish pitch. The votes of coastal communities and cashew workers will be crucial in setting the tone in Kollam, considered a Left bastion.
While sitting MP and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader N. K. Premachadram is keeping his fingers crossed for a hattrick, it is also a performorperish situation for his party. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls he bagged a whopping 4,99,667 votes and defeated CPI(M) heavyweight and current Finance Minister K. N. Balagopal by a margin of nearly 1.5 lakh. It was his second term representing Kollam after the RSP severed its ties with the Left Democratic Front in 2014.
Apart from his consecutive electoral victories, Mr. Premachandran had been in the spotlight for his parliamentary interventions and the United Democratic Front expects one of the highest margins from Kollam.
As in 2019, his political opponents are spreading speculations of defection, especially after Mr. Premachandran attending a luncheon hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
For the LDF, recapturing Kollam after two backtoback defeats is a top priority and twotime CPI (M) legislator M. Mukesh has been handpicked for the job.
No easy task
He has built his campaign completely around the development initiatives in the Kollam Assembly constituency and the multiple welfare schemes launched by the State government. The challenge is to wrest the constituency from Mr. Premachandran who had defeated two senior CPI(M) leaders such as Mr. Balagopal and M. A. Baby in the past, which is no easy task.BJP’s G. Krishnakumar, who had contested the last Assembly polls for the Thiruvananthapuram seat, was the last to enter the electoral fray in Kollam.
In 2019 the CPI(M) leadership had raised a major allegation that Kollam was among the few constituencies in Kerala where the BJP and Congress had struck a deal for vote trading. Despite having around 1.5 lakh votes, V.K. Sabu, a lessprominent leader who had no connection with the constituency, was fielded.
While fullscale electioneering has begun for the star candidate, the party leadership also seems confident that there will be a substantial improvement in the 10.6 % vote share of the last Lok Sabha polls.