THIRUVANANTAHPURAM: RSP state secretary Shibu Baby John officially announced the candidature of Kollam MP NK Premachandran from the Lok Sabha constituency on Sunday. Shibu made the announcement at the RSP state headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram in the MP’s presence. He had sought the UDF’s permission to declare Premachandran’s candidature from Kollam as the final round of bilateral talks with the IUML remain pending.
Meanwhile, Shibu exuded confidence that UDF will make a clean sweep in the upcoming election by winning all 20 LS seats. He also attacked the CPM of trying to cash in on minority votes by through cheap campaigns.
This will be Premachandran’s fifth LS outing, and his third on a UDF ticket. The 63-year-old won from Kollam in 1996 and 1998 as an LDF candidate, and in 2014 and 2019 as a UDF candidate (post RSP’s return to UDF in 2014). He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2000, and was water resources minister in the V S Achuthanandan-led LDF government during 2006.
In the 2019 LS polls, Premachandran defeated CPM’s K N Balagopal by 1.5 lakh votes. This time, Kollam MLA and actor Mukesh is expected to be his opponent.
Premachandran had courted controversy last week after he attended a lunch meeting hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Parliament House canteen, along with seven other MPs.