KPCC set to look beyond NSS vote
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the Nair Service Society (NSS) leadership showing its affinity towards the BJP in Thiruvananthapuram and Pathanamthitta, the KPCC is looking towards other communities, especially in the coastal belt. The BJP is also chasing Nadar votes giving anxious moments to the KPCC.
Former Mavelikkara NSS taluk union president T.K. Prasad had claimed on Monday that the NSS leadership had decided to support BJP in Pathanamthitta and Thiruvananthapuram. The leadership in Perunna had also directed the unions not to ally with the Left.
This has created panic in the Congress which hopes the traditional votes from the coastal belt and Nadar communities will stay with it.
“The Congress may lose a minor portion of Nadar votes. The rest will go to Shashi Tharoor. Top Congress leaders have close ties with the NSS leadership that will help it across the state,” said a KPCC source.
The Pathanamthitta DCC has rubbished the claim made by T.K. Prasad.
A DCC member told this newspaper that NSS general secretary G. Sukumaran Nair had held a meeting of all the talkuk unions in the constituency at Perunna last Saturday.
“Sukumaran Nair has asked the Nairs not to vote for the LDF candidate. The NSS had preferred BJP state president P. S. Sreedharan Pillai to be the candidate in Pathanamthitta and it may not rally behind K. Surendran. This will benefit UDF’s Anto Antony,” the DCC member said.