Return
to Story Page
To print: Select File and then Print from your
browser's menu
TP Alexander
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 23: The Kollam parliamentary seat from Kerala, a sure bet for the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) till the other day, has all of a sudden turned out to be one that will witness a keen contest with the Congress in the coming elections.
In the strongest bastion of RSP, which has now split into two, no one can say which way the voters would turn.
Kollam is one of the three seats the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has taken over from its Left Democratic Front (LDF) allies, the others being Kannur and Moovattupuzha. It is also one of the two Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament) seats from where incumbent parliamentarians have been asked to move to make room for others. In Kollam, RSP's NK Premachandran was eased out to accommodate CPI-M leader VS Achuthanandan's protege P Rajendran while in Kozhikode P Sankaran had to bow out for senior Congress party leader Kannoth Karunakaran's son K Muraleedharan.
Unlike in the last election in which Premachandran romped homecomfortably, this time the three-cornered contest features MP Gangadharan of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), Rajendran (LDF) and the (BJP-led National Democratic Alliance candidate Jayalakshmi. Despite the unpredictable political climate, it appears to be mainly a contest between Gangadharan and Rajendran.
Besides being an outsider, Gangadharan has an image problem arising from his alleged role in the infamous pipe scandal which might hamper his poll prospects, according to political observers. The scandal involved purchase of drainage pipes when he was irrigation minister in the Karunakaran ministry in the 1980s. It was followed by another controversy--getting his daughter married before the legally eligible age of 18.
But no one can overlook his electoral track record of winning five Assembly elections in a row. This is his sixth battle of the ballot and, for a change, he is aiming at the Lok Sabha. Born in Ramanattukara in Kozhikode, Gangadharan is settled in Manjeri. Gangadharan,who has a heart bypass surgery behind him, is unfazed by allegations raised by his critics.
"There has been no inquiry panel constituted against me, which itself proves that those who are making these allegations are only interested in character assassination," he says.
Gangadharan says if the CPI-M is insistent on unearthing scandals, he would rake up the cashew purchase scandal during the tenure of its candidate Rajendran as chairman of the Cashew Development Corporation.
Rajendran, 49, a postgraduate in political science and a member of the CPI-M state committee, has to face the wrath of the RSP cadre in Kollam because of the CPI-M decision to grab the seat.
There is general discontent within the Communist Party of India (CPI), the RSP and its rebel wing led by veteran leader Baby John over the CPI-M takeover of Kollam. Besides, the powerful Nair community is also irked by the denial of the seat to the incumbent, Premachandran.
Though, the margin of victory was less in the 1998 elections ascompared to 1996, there was a remarkable increase in the percentage of votes. Premachandran got 51.7 per cent of the total votes polled in 1998 as against 48.7 per cent in 1996 when he won with a margin of 78,370 votes, a landmark in the history of the constituency.
Jayalakshmi is the wife of John Mathai, a practising psychiatrist in Kottayam. She was chairperson of the Women's Development Corporation and a member of the Advisory Board for Women of the Planning Commission. In the 1996 elections, BJP candidate Nina Pillai, widow of late business tycoon Rajan Pillai, could get only 7.8 per cent of the total votes polled in Kollam. The percentage dropped further to 4.82 in the 1998 polls. It cannot be too different this time too.
India Abroad News Service
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
------------------------------------------------------------
This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
------------------------------------------------------------