BJP's Sobha Surendran, who entered late into the poll scene and used Sabarimala as her trump card, could cause a major upset in Kazhakkoottam, Manorama News-VMR Kerala Exit Poll results announced on Friday said. The exit poll results showed she would garner 34.5 per cent votes.
Sitting MLA and Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran will be pushed to the second place with 31.7 per cent votes, according to the poll result. Congress's Dr S S Lal would be third, mobilising 27.1 per cent votes.
It was Kadakampally Surendran, unwittingly, who set the tone for the campaign in Kazhakkoottam. In the second week of March, he expressed regret for what happened in Kerala after the Supreme Court verdict on women's entry into Sabarimala, shocking the CPM and giving BJP the perfect excuse to sneak in the Sabarimala issue.
Sobha Surendran, though her candidature was among the last to be announced, began her campaign from Kariyavattom Sree Dharmasastha Temple, the most popular Ayyappa temple in Kazhakuttom constituency. She made Kadakampally, the devaswom minister, the villain of the piece.
The BJP had already made its presence felt in Kazhakkoottam in a big way in 2016. In 2016, BJP's V Muraleedharan gobbled up 31.90 per cent of the votes, pushing the UDF candidate and three-time winner M A Vaheed to the third place. In 2011, the BJP candidate, Padmakumar, could secure just 6.86 per cent votes.
The BJP's surge in 2016 has virtually transformed Kazhakkoottam into a two-way fight between the CPM and the BJP.
Surendran was untouched by the BJP's rise in 2016. He still managed to improve his vote share by 2.18 per cent in 2016. But this time, his luck seems to have dried up.