New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram: Putting an end to the confusion over the Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha seat, BJP on Saturday announced its state general secretary K Surendran as the candidate for the contentious Lok Sabha seat.
Earlier, BJP state president P S Sreedharan Pillai and central minister Alphons Kannanthanam had staked claim to the seat.
Surendran was also interested in Thrissur constituency. After BDJS president Thushar Vellappally declared his interest in the seat, Surendran was ready to settle for Pathanamthitta, which was the epicentre of the Sabarimala agitation in the recent past.
BJP on Thursday night announced its first list of 184 candidates, including 13 from Kerala, leaving out only the Pathanamthitta constituency. The tussle for Pathanamthitta constituency delayed the finalisation of the Kerala list prompting the state leadership to even send a rehashed list to New Delhi.
BJP, which is seeking to open its account in Lok Sabha from Kerala in the April 23 polls, is contesting 14 of the 20 seats in the state, leaving five to its allies – BDJS (Bharat Dharma Jana Sena) and one to Kerala Congress led by P C Thomas.
The party, which had spearheaded the agitation over the LDF government's decision to implement the Supreme Court's verdict allowing women of all age groups to offer prayers at the hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa late last year, is pinning hopes on Pathanamithitta constituency.
Surendran was in the forefront of the recent agitation over entry of women in child-bearing age into Lord Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala and had been incarcerated for nearly a month over the protest.
Surendran had offered prayers at the Ayyappa temple on Thursday on the last day of the monthly pooja.
As the state party leadership kept mum on the omission of Pathanamthitta from the BJP's second list too, there were speculations that two senior Congress leaders were being considered for the post. Senior Congress leader P J Kurien, whose name did the rounds, slammed the 'switch over' reports as baseless and fabricated.
PC to contest from Pathanamthitta
Poonjar MLA P C George said that he will contest from Pathanamthitta as the Congress leaders betrayed him.
George said that he first announced his candidature and then withdrew because Congress leaders Ramesh Chennithala, Oommen Chandy and Mullappally Ramachandran promised to make him a part of the UDF. However, as the Congress leaders went back on their word the Kerala Janapaksham leader decided to contest from Pathanamthitta.
An official announcement on this will be made on March 26, 2019, George said.
BJP's vote share in Pathanamthitta
When all other major parties lost votes between 2009 and 2014 general elections in the all-important Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha constituency, BJP’s vote share soared from 7.06 to 16.29 per cent. Congress vote share came down from 51.21 to 42.07 per cent, a 9.14 per cent decline. CPM’s share came down from 37.26 per cent to 35.4 per cent in the same period.
Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha constituency consists of Kanjirappally and Poonjar constituencies in Kottayam district and Thiruvalla, Ranni, Aranmula, Konni and Adoor Assembly constituencies in Pathanamthitta district.
Number of voters in the constituency has risen from 13,17,851 in the last election to 13,40,193 as of January 30, 2019. Of these, 6,41,473 are men, 6,98,718 women and 2 transgenders.
The BJP eyes to win this seat especially in the aftermath of the Sabarimala agitation. Its Lok Sabha candidate in 2009 – Radhakrishna Menon – secured 56,294 votes, while its M T Ramesh got 1,38,954 in 2014.
Ramesh, who finished third, was 2,19,888 votes short of winner Congress’s Anto Antony. The number of votes in his favour in the assembly divisions were: Kanjirappally 20,840, Poonjar 15,099, Thiruvalla 19,536, Ranni 18,531, Aranmula 23,771, Konni 18,222, Adoor 22,796 and postal 169.
In 2016 assembly election, BJP’s vote share in these places rose again. Its candidate V N Manoj got 31,411 votes in Kanjirappalli, D Ashok Kumar 16, 713 in Konni, Akkeeraman Kalidasan Bhattathiripad 31,439 in Thiruvalla, M T Ramesh 37,906 in Aranmula and P Sudheer 25,940 in Adoor. The candidates of BDJS, a BJP ally, contested in two seats - K Padmakumar fetched 28,201 votes in Ranni and P Ullas secured 19,966 votes in Poonjar.
In all, the NDA's assembly candidates obtained 1,91,576 votes in the region falling within Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha constituency. The figure was 1,38,954 in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
Congress' Anto Antony has been representing this constituency for a decade after wins in 2009 and 2014.
The multi-phase Lok Sabha election is set to commence on April 11. Kerala will vote on April 23, Tuesday.
(With inputs from PTI)
