Kanyakumari is facing a six- cornered contest and the constituency is getting special attention primarily because the coordinator of People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy P Udayakumar representing Aam Aadmi Party is contesting from this seat.
Before the delimitation exercise, the present Kanyakumari Parliamentary constituency came under Nagercoil Parliamentary constituency and Nagercoil, Colachel, Padmanabhapuram, Thiruvattar, Vilavancode and Killiyoor Assembly segments in the district came under this constituency. Parts of Kanyakumari Assembly segment were with the erstwhile Tiruchendur Parliamentary constituency.
After delimitation, the new Kanyakumari Parliamentary constituency was carved out of Kanyakumari, Nagercoil,
Padmanabhapuram, Killiyoor, Colachel and Vilavancode Assembly segments. Of the previously held 15 Lok Sabha elections beginning from 1951, Congress had won this seat 12 times and was believed to be a Congress bastion. But during the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, BJP candidate Pon Radhakrishnan in the DMK alliance won this constituency.
Later during 2004, A V Bellarmin of CPM in the Congress-DMK alliance contested from this constituency and was elected to the Lok Sabha. Similarly in the 2009 elections, J Helen Davidson of DMK in the Congress alliance won the elections. The AIADMK has fielded John Thangam and is going to test its strength in the approaching Lok Sabha elections without any alliance.
Some of the issues facing the district were: bifurcation of the Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli railway routes from Trivandrum Railway division and merging it with Madurai division of railways; setting up of a rubber research station and rubber park in the district; setting up of a heli-pad in the district for the speedy rescue of fishermen during
the time of distress in sea; setting up of a separate Union Ministry for fishermen’s welfare; and expediting of the four-lane by-pass road works between Nagercoil and Thiruvananthapuram. In this religion-sensitive constituency, more than 50 per cent of the population are Christians, therefore the candidates who used to get the minorities support could easily gain victory.