As electioneering moves to its most intense phase, Kollam constituency, the city centre of the district, has come under spotlight. With all three fronts going full throttle to woo the voters, the segment is all poised to witness a keen contest.
While sitting MLA and actor-turned politician M. Mukesh is seeking people’s mandate for a second time as the Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate, the United Democratic Front (UDF) has fielded District Congress Committee (DCC) president Bindu Krishna. Joining the two in the fray is National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s M. Sunil, former district president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The segment includes 25 divisions of the Kollam Corporation and the nearby panchayats of Panayam and Thrikkaruva.
While the candidature of M. Mukesh created quite a clamour within the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] local units, Ms. Krishna’s name was announced in the last round after much ado. Mr. Mukesh, who has been tagged as the ‘absentee MLA’ by his political opponents, was the first to hit the campaign trail in the constituency.
Headway
As of now he has a clear headway on campaign front and the candidate lists out the development works worth ₹1,330 crore to challenge the ‘guest representative’ taunt. Ms. Krishna had to face severe criticism from a faction of the Congress after the party’s poor performance during the local body elections and the DCC president was in for a shock when the Congress leadership offered her Kundara instead of Kollam. But everything played out in her favour in the next stage and Ms. Krishna lost no time in launching an aggressive campaign.
United Democratic Front candidate Bindu Krishna.
Mr. Sunil, who had contested as the BJP candidate in Chavara in 2016, is keeping his fingers crossed as the front could make a notable leap in the local body polls.
Since the segment has a coastal area that includes Vaddy, Port Kollam, Thangassery and Thirumullavaram along with backwaters in Panayam, Kureepuzha and Thrikkaruva, fishers form a sizeable part of voters.
Though Kollam used to favour Congress or Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) in the earlier elections, CPI(M) snatched the seat in 2006 for the first time. P.K. Gurudasan won the seat in 2006 and 2011 while M. Mukesh retained it in 2016.While Mr. Mukesh is riding high on development and welfare measures, Ms. Krishna is banking on her popularity in the segment, especially among fishers and cashew workers.
LS, local body polls
Though UDF’s N.K. Premachandran gained a margin of 24,545 votes in the constituency during the last Lok Sabha polls, LDF was able to retain Kollam Corporation with a brute majority for the fifth consecutive term and the statistics leaves both the fronts hopeful.