The BJP on Saturday announced former Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan as the party candidate for the vacant Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha seat. The party has started campaigning stating Ponnar would be elevated as Union Minister if voted to Lok Sabha. The BJP which drew a blank in the last Lok Sabha polls is pinning hopes on Radhakrishnan to reopen its MP account in TN.

Radhakrishnan

Chennai:

The Delhi BJP headquarters in a statement named Radhakrishnan as candidate after the approval of the BJP’s Central Election Committee (CEC).

The development comes in the wake of BJP- AIADMK clinching the poll pact agreement in Chennai on Friday night. As per the agreement, the BJP will contest 20 assembly seats and the Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha seat. The BJP has also planned to field MLA candidates in the Kanniyakumari seat which has six assembly segments. Kanniyakumari has been a favourable district for national parties Congress and BJP.

Radhakrishnan had won from Kanniyakumari in the 2014 parliamentary polls and later become the minister of state in the PM Modi-led NDA government. In 2019 LS polls he lost to Vasantha Kumar from the same seat.

The vacancy was created last year after the demise of veteran Congress leader H Vasantha Kumar who died due to COVID. The Congress is likely to field Vijay Vasanth, son of deceased Vasantha Kumar in the bordering district between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Congress leader Karthi Chidambaram had also filed an application requesting Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to contest from the Kanniyakumari seat.

“This time there are bright chances for Radhakrishnan to register a victory. The party will now focus on Kanniyakumari and the 20 assembly seats, ” said a BJP district functionary.