Kollam elected N K Premachandran, who stressed on his personality as well as development, again.
In his second innings as United Democratic Front (UDF) lawmaker, Premachandran’s margin of victory is 1,48,856 votes.
While the RSP leader secured 4,99,677 votes, his CPM rival K N Balagopal polled 3,50,821 votes and NDA’s K V Sabu 1,03,339 votes.
Interestingly, Kollam constituency has always been favourable to candidates who have shifted base to the district. Premachandran belongs to Navaikulam in Thiruvananthapuram district and Balagopal hails from Kalanjoor in Pathanamthitta and NDA's Sabu is from Thipunithura in Ernakulam.
All of them are law graduates.
The CPM had put up a stiff fight to capture Kollam at all cost. The RSP was keen to retain it at any cost. A seemingly tough battle ensued.
Kollam had become a fertile ground for the RSP to grow after N Sreekandan Nair, a native of Ambalapuzha, won the Lok Sabha elections from here with huge massive margins five times.
Later, S Krishna Kumar from Thiruvananthapuram representing Congress became Lok Sabha MP from Kollam on three occasions.
Winners in all the 16 Parliament elections, except one, held from 1952 belonged to neighbouring districts.
RSP was the winner on eight occasions and Congress three. Premachandran went to Parliament initially as the successor of Sreekandan Nair, but the CPM captured the seat in 1999.
During the 2019 polls, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had directly coordinated the LDF campaign in Kollam.
The CPM had won in Kollam with RSP as its ally on two occasions.
However, the Congress regained the seat in 2009.
When the RSP and Premachandran were sidelined by the LDF in 2014, the UDF grabbed the opportunity and took them into the front.
Premachandran went on to register a huge win over CPM politburo member M A Baby in 2014.
Premachandran is known in the constituency as the man with a golden touch.
He was selected for the Special Sansad Ratna Award for the best Lok Sabha member in 2017.
Interestingly, it was Balagopal who was the best Rajya Sabha member that year.
In 2014, Premachandran’s tally was 4,08,528 votes and margin 37,649. Baby had secured 3,70,879 votes and P M Velayudhan of the BJP 58,671 votes.
