THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Mizoram Governor Kummanam Rajasekharan is likely to become the NDA candidate from Thiruvananthapuram constituency. It is learnt the party national leadership has given the green signal to the request from the state RSS leadership and BJP state president P S Sreedharan Pillai for relieving Kummanam from the Gubernatorial assignment and to allow him to contest.
Sreedharan Pillai told Express: “I have already communicated with the party central leadership for Kummanam to contest from Thiruvananthapuram and I think things are positive in that front.” “Moreover, the party fact-finding commission led by C K Padmanabhan among the party cadre has found Kummanam is the best candidate for T’Puram,” he said.
Kummanam who was the state president of the BJP before being posted as Mizoram Governor, is considered to be the best bet for the party as all the surveys conducted by the BJP with the support of national-level agencies have given the senior leader the much-needed edge for T’Puram constituency.
In the last general elections, BJP leader O Rajagopal lost the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat with a margin of 14,501 votes and the party leadership is of the feel Kummanam coming as party candidate will give a major fillip to the party cadre and will consolidate the much-needed Hindu vote bank.
Even though Pillai has stated in public the party will not rake up the Sabarimala issue for electoral gains, it is quite obvious the issue will be in the forefront of the high voltage election campaign which the BJP will unleash in the state.
It may be noted that Kummanam had contested the Vattiyoorkavu Assembly elections while he was the state BJP president during the 2016 Assembly elections. He had given sitting MLA K Muraleedharan a run for the money. Kummanam had also contested in 1987 as the Hindu Munnani candidate and had come second in a three-cornered contest from the then Thiruvananthapuram East constituency. Kummanam has a warm relationship with the NSS, the SNDP and all other Hindu organisations being the Hindu Aikya Vedi state general secretary for years. Kummanam was not available for comments.