No candidate has won more than twice in a row from the Kollam legislative assembly constituency. The leaders who bit the dust after successful electoral contests here were A A Rahim of the Congress, RSP's T K Divakaran and Babu Divakaran, Kadavoor Sivadasan who had been with the Congress and the RSP, and CPM's P K Gurudasan.
During the last polls, the CPM had been sceptical whether its decision to give the ticket to actor-turned-politician M Mukesh over veteran leader Gurudasan would go wrong. But the party units contained the murmurs of dissent and sweated it out to ensure victory for Mukesh by a decent majority.
When the same name was mooted again this time, Gurudasan and others objected but no other name was considered. The party is well aware that no matter which name is considered, hundred other names are likely to crop up and hence, concluded that Mukesh was a safe bet.
DCC president Bindu Krishna had to literally sweat it out in the Kollam city as she held protests against LPG price rise and fuel price hike. But still, it is a do-or-die battle for her to prove that allotting the seat to her was not in vain.
The BJP has fielded its former district president M Sunil, but the silence maintained by those within the party and the RSS who were denied the seat has left a question mark over its prospects. Sunil also has the responsibility to garner more than 17,000 votes which the party had secured last time.
The fisherfolk live by the Arabian Sea and the Ashtamudi Lake. But the CPM is trying hard to quell the apprehensions that were triggered after it was said that an American company was going to enter the waters the fisherfolk frequent daily.
The UDF is pinning its hopes on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's words to the fisherfolk that he ‘would stand with them’.
But now the vote bank in the constituency does not comprise just the fisherfolk and cashew workers. Apart from the large number of workers in the unorganised sector, the number of upper-middle class and the rich have also swelled.
The headquarters or ‘strategic centres’ of caste and religious outfits also exist in the city. The discreet instructions from these centres would also have a significant bearing on the poll results.
