Peethambara Kurup rewarded for his loyalty
KOLLAM: Unstinted loyalty to Leader K Karunakaran brought the reward for N Peethambara Kurup in Kollam.
Kurup was the only nominee of Karunakaran among the 17 Congress candidates for the LS polls in the State. Though he entered the fray almost a month after the LDF candidate started his campaign, Kurup could wrest the constituency for the party after a gap of 13 years. He is the fifth Congress candidate to win in the Kollam constituency, since 1952.
It was in 1980, that a Congress candidate was elected for the first time from Kollam. In that election, B.K.Nair of the Congress defeated N.Sreekandan Nair of the RSP. In 1984, ‘89 and ‘91, it was the turn of former Union Minister S.Krishnakumar.
However, in 1996, N K Premachandran regained Kollam for the RSP by defeating Krishnakumar and since then, the Left dominated the scene. Interestingly, both Peethambara Kurup and N.K.Premachandran belong to the same place - Navaikulam, the grama panchayat in Thiruvananthapuram bordering the Kollam district.
Premachandran, a young dynamic leader of the RSP was then brought to Kollam by Baby John to regain the constituency for the party. Now, Kurup, who hails from the the same place, has put an end to the domination of the Left.
Earlier, Kurup had unsuccessfully contested the elections on two occasions - in the District Council elections in 1991 (Navaikulam division) and the Assembly elections in 1987 (Vamanapuram). In the 1991 District Council elections, he lost to Premachandran. This time, Kurup got the highest margin from Chavara, the constituency represented by Minister Premachandran.
Kurup entered politics as an activist of the Kerala Students Union in the early 1960s. A crowd-puller through his oratory skills, Kurup slowly climbed up the ladder and became the Thiruvananthapuram DCC president. He always maintained his loyalty to Karunakaran since factionalism started gripping the party. He left the party along with Karunakaran to form the DIC and returned to it along with him. Later, Kurup was appointed KPCC vice-president.
Karunakaran, who was not very active in the poll campaign this time owing to health problems, campaigned for Kurup for two days by camping in Kollam. Kurup was considered a ‘weak’ candidate against the LDF by many, including the top-level leaders of the party in the district. Many of them were of the opinion that it would be difficult to win and even if he wins it would be with a slender margin. Though all the leaders in the DCC were not very active in the field, factionalism in the Kollam DCC too did not affect Kurup, as he was an outsider.