In Kollam it is a battle between first-timers in the coming Assembly election. Yet the contest here is one of the keenly watched races in the State.
Actor M. Mukesh of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is the Left Democratic Front candidate, Sooraj Ravi of the Congress is the United Democratic Front candidate, and retired Principal of the S.N. College K. Sasikumar, in the fray as an Independent, is the National Democratic Alliance candidate.
Mr. Mukesh’s entry has provided glamour quotient for the contest. And as Mr. Sooraj and Prof. Sasikumar entered the fray, the contest got pepped up. Braving the sweltering heat, all the three have been on a campaign slog for the past 10 days and with each passing day, each of them claim that they have enough reason to feel more and more confident.
For Mr. Mukesh, a son of Kollam city, drawing crowds was not a problem. When Mr. Sooraj was declared the UDF candidate, there were doubts even in the Congress camp whether he was the apt rival for Mr. Mukesh. But as the days went by, Mr. Sooraj, son of the late Congress veteran Thoppil Ravi and nominee of KPCC president V.M. Sudheeran, has boosted the confidence of Congress leaders here and they feel he has the potential to turn the tables. Both of them have already filed their nominations.
Prof. Sasikumar is a popular personality in the educational and social arenas of Kollam. Though the Kollam seat was originally allocated to the Bharat Dharma Jana Sena by the NDA, Prof. Sasikumar’s close association with the Sree Narayana movement made the BDJS and the SNDP Yogam feel more confident when it came to making way for him. He will be filing his nomination papers on Thursday.
Both the LDF and the UDF claim to be strong in Kollam and the BJP has made some deep inroads into the constituency of late.
