Heated Battle In BJP's Lone Seat In Kerala Assembly

Nemom, a tiny suburb located on the outskirts of Kerala, is the most talked-about constituency in the April 6 assembly polls.

What makes it high profile is the do-or-die situation faced by the major political fronts -- Congress-led UDF, CPI(M)-headed LDF and BJP-NDA- at this segment which has already garnered national attention.

Nemom is the lone seat of the BJP in the Kerala Assembly.

BJP candidate and former Mizoram Governor Kummanam Rajasekharan and LDF nominee V Sivankutty have already begun their campaign in the constituency.

Congress heavyweight, K Muraleedharan, whose candidature was announced only two days ago, made an entry into the constituency by taking out a mammoth road-show on Tuesday.

With the arrival of a strong leader like Mr Muraleedharan, Nemom is expected to witness one of the toughest triangular fights in the history of the polls.

Mr Rajasekharan, who submitted nomination papers on Wednesday, expressed confidence about his victory and said the BJP would surely retain the seat.

The senior leader, who was reportedly the unanimous choice of the saffron party in the prestigious segment, said his candidature was the result of the trust shown by the people of Nemom.

The saffron party has no choice but to try all means to retain their sole Assembly constituency, which they had gained after years of struggle, breaking the dominance of decades-long bipolar polity enjoyed by the UDF and LDF in the southern state.

However, the traditional fronts- UDF and LDF- have a big responsibility to defeat the BJP to reclaim their hegemony in the polls and implement their aim to keep the state "BJP mukth".

The steady rise in its vote bank in Nemom has prompted many BJP leaders to label the constituency as the "Gujarat of Kerala" while the Marxist party termed it as their "red fort" quoting the figures of the voting percentage in the previous polls.

The Congress party leadership might have spent a significant time to choose a strong nominee in Nemom to discard the allegations by the Marxist party against their "tie-up" with BJP in the constituency.

The mass drain of votes from the UDF side during the 2016 assembly election was the reason for the Left to raise allegations against them.

The Congress even thought about fielding a high profile leader like Oommen Chandy to give a befitting reply to the CPI(M) but finally roped in senior leader K Muraleedharan, a member of parliament.

If the party wins and it can wrest the lone seat from BJP, it would be a game-changer in state politics, the Congress leadership feels.

After launching the campaign at Nemom, Mr Muraleedhran, son of former Chief Minister, the late K Karunakaran, said he and the Congress were contesting for the first position in the upcoming elections.

"Let them (LDF and BJP) decide the second and third positions. But, we are fighting for the top position. I have wholeheartedly taken up the responsibility entrusted to me by my party," the leader said.

Rejecting the claims of the UDF and BJP, Sivankutty, the LDF candidate, however, said the constituency has all the favourable factors for the Left front to succeed and he was receiving very positive responses from voters.

"People here have their own reasons, whether the issues at the national level or the development projects implemented by the Pinarayi Vijayan government, to choose an LDF candidate as their representative this time," he said.

He alleged that the present BJP MLA had done nothing for the development of the constituency in the past five years.

With nearly two lakh voters, Nemom has a large chunk of upper-caste Hindu votes besides a considerable Muslim and Nadar community votes.

BJP veteran and former union minister O Rajagopal had won Nemom in the 2016 assembly polls garnering 67,813 votes and defeating V Sivankutty who secured 59,142 votes.

However, the UDF candidate V Surendran Pillai (JD-S) could finish only in a distant third with 13,860 votes.

Until the saffron party wrested Nemom in 2016, both the traditional fronts - LDF and UDF - had won the constituency twice each in four elections since 1996.

Of the total 1,57, 949 votes polled in Nemom assembly segment during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP candidate garnered 58,513 votes while Congress and CPI nominees 46,472 and 33,921 votes respectively.