Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 11 The stage is set for the Lok Sabha elections at Attingal in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram district, which will witness a triangular contest between the three main political fronts in the state.
The high-profile candidates in Attingal include two Members of Parliament and one legislator.
While the Congress has renominated sitting MP Adoor Prakash, the BJP has fielded Minister of State for External Affairs, V. Muraleedharan from Attingal. For the CPI-M, two-time sitting Varkala MLA V. Joy will contest the polls.
In 1019, Prakash, a former state minister, was a surprise choice for the Congress to take on sitting CPI-M MP A. Sampath. However, Prakash, considered an 'outsider' as he hailed from another district, handed a stunning defeat to Sampath, winning the seat by 38,247 votes.
Significantly, firebrand BJP leader Sobha Surendran finished third, raising the saffron camp's vote count from 90,528 in 2014 to 2,48,041 in 2019. That performance has raised the hopes of the BJP and Muraleedharan to spring a surprise this time.
However, Joy, the only local candidate in the fray, knows the constituency like the back of his hand.
What is boosting the confidence of Joy and the CPI-M is the fact that all the seven Assembly seats in the Attingal Lok Sabha constituency are held by the ruling Left parties -- five by the CPI-M, and two by the CPI.
While Joy was the first to hit the campaign trail, Prakash and Muraleedharan have just started theirs, though one thing is certain -- Attingal is one of the few seats among the 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala that will witness a real triangular poll battle this time.
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