Antony Raju off starting block, others still warming up

Thiruvananthapuram: With just 32 days left for the  Assembly elections, campaigning in Thiruvananthapuram central is yet to pick up.  The LDF's Antony Raju has made significant strides whereas Congress candidate V. S. Sivakumar and BJP's S. Sreesanth are way behind.

Earlier, Mr Antony Raju had contested  with the backing of the LDF in 1991, 1996 and 2001 and won from the  Thiruvananthapuram west costituency in 1996.   Mr  Raju who was until recently in the UDF camp under the Kerala Congress (Mani) banner says the contest is  between the LDF and the BJP.

“I decided to join the LDF along with a few of my colleagues after we felt that it was dynasty politics in KC (M). Since BJP national president Amit Shah is directly monitoring the polls here, the fight will be between the LDF and the BJP,”  he said.

In the 2011 Assembly elections, the Congress won the  seat by a margin of 5,352 votes. With 49,122 votes (45.87 percent), Mr Sivakumar defeated LDF’s V. Surendran Pillai (40.87 percent) who belonged to Kerala Congress (anti-merger group) party. BJP’s  the late B. K. Shekhar  polled 11, 519 votes with 10.76 percent of the total votes polled.  But  the BJP secured  34 seats in the Thiruvananthapuram corporation elections last year and emerged as the second largest party, pushing the UDF to the third place.

Mr Sivakumar has the strong backing of  NSS general secretary G. Sukumaran Nair and his group leader, Ramesh Chennithala.  Mr  Sivakumar told  DC that Thiruvananthapuram city and its suburbs have seen great strides during the UDF rule.  

“I have put up a good show  in the constituency for  the last five years with development projects like  Vizhinjam International Transshipment Terminal, Karamana – Kaliyyakkavila road stretch, and starting engineering colleges, nursing college, IGNOU centre and several housing schemes,” he said.

According to Thiruvananthapuram MP Dr. Shashi Tharoor, the  BJP has already conceded defeat by fielding Sreesanth in the constituency with a large population of educated working class.  What  is worrying the BJP is the coastal areas where Sreesanth would find it difficult to connect with the voters. The cricketer  aims to get the support of the youngsters. A senior BJP leader told DC that a plethora of central leaders and  action hero Suresh Gopi will campaign for Sreesanth.