Thiruvananthapuram, March 20 The Kollam Lok Sabha seat in Kerala will see a fight between two-time sitting MP, who is aiming for a hat-trick and film star-turned-politician Mukesh.
Mukesh is a two-time CPI(M) legislator and has acted in many Malayalam films.
The sitting MP, N.K. Premachandran belongs to the Revolutionary Socialist Party and is considered to be an archrival of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan after he switched from Left to the Congress-led UDF.
Premachandran was one of the most popular State Ministers in the cabinet of CPI(M) leader V.S. Achuthanandan (2006-11), but soon after the Oommen Chandy-led Congress government took over in 2011, a big section of the RSP, including Premachandran, joined as an ally of the Congress which irked CM Vijayan and other CPI(M) leaders.
Premachandran was also a member of the Lok Sabha from Kollam in 1996 and 1998, then as an ally of the Left. In 2014 he was fielded by the Congress from Kollam, and CPI(M) had one of its then stalwarts, state Minister and present politburo member M.A. Baby. The former won with a margin of over 37,000 votes.
In 2019 again CM Vijayan and his close aides tried their best to prevent Premachandran from winning and brought in the then young turk and present State Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal. But Premachandran again won with a margin of over 1.48 lakh votes.
Now for the third time CM Vijayan and his team will try to defeat him. This time the Left has brought film actor-turned-politician and two-time legislator representing the Kollam Assembly constituency, Mukesh to stop Premachandran from winning again.
Incidentally, the BJP, which is yet to announce their candidate, is eyeing TV star Krishnakumar to add glamour to the Kollam contest.
The BJP candidate at the 2019 polls managed around 1.03 lakh votes. Hence this time too the main battle is going to be between Premachandran and Mukesh.
Premachandran, through his soft and polite behavior, is a popular MP for the Congress-led opposition. Tongues, however, began to wag, when he was asked to join lunch which was hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with another eight MPs during the last session of Parliament.
“I fail to understand the manner in which the CPI(M) spread canards against me as they have nothing else to say,” said Premachandran after speculation surfaced that he might shift loyalties.
The biggest advantage that Mukesh is banking on is the CPI(M)'s win in all the seven Assembly segments, including his own. That win has made the Left sure of victory this time, but the Congress is confident of the hat-trick.
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