Elections 2019: UDF Eyes BJP’s Support in Kerala’s Attingal and Kollam Constituencies?

The plight of the fisherfolk community, cashew and coir workers is one of the main issues during the election campaigns in Kerala’s Attingal and Kollam parliamentary constituencies. The major political players – Left Democratic Front (LDF) and United Democratic Front (UDF) – are actively campaigning in the scorching April sun, highlighting these issues along with the national issues.

Sitting MP, A Sampath of Communist Party of India (Marxist), CPI(M), is again representing LDF in the Attingal constituency. Sampath, a three-time parliamentarian, is a very familiar face among the masses. Sampath commenced his election campaign way before his main opponent Adoor Prakash of Congress who represents UDF, and this gives an edge to the LDF. The BJP-led NDA camp is, however, a bit hopeful because of the candidature of Shobha Surendran. The NDA camp hopes that she reaps victory, highlighting the Sabarimala issue.

Sampath’s campaigns focus on asserting how the Centre’s pro-corporate policies are destroying people’s livelihoods, and are reminding the people the importance of the Left in these tough times. On the other hand, the initial uncertainty in the UDF camp over candidature has become a setback for Adoor Prakash, who also represents Konni constituency in Kerala Legislative Assembly.

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The Attingal Lok Sabha constituency which came into existence in 2008 is comprises Varkala, Attingal, Chirayinkeezhu, Nedumangad, Vamanapuram, Aruvikkara and Kattakkada assembly segments. Attingal, which was carved out of the Chirayinkil Lok Sabha constituency, has so far sent only one LDF candidate to the Parliament. Both in 2009 and 2014, A Sampath represented the constituency in the Parliament. Before that, in 1996, Sampath had been sent to the Parliament from Chirayinkil. Though the initial elections had supported the Left in Chirayinkil, Congress had wrested the seat from the Left in 1971 through Vayalar Ravi. The seat remained with the Congress till 1991, after which the seat was considered to be a stronghold of the Left, following the victory of Susheela Gopalan of CPI(M) in the 1991. When Attingal was carved out of Chirayinkil, the trend continued.

If we look at the 2014 elections, Sasmpath’s win was with a margin of 69,378 votes. LDF’s vote share was 45.67% , while Congress’s Adv. Bindu Krishna of Congress secured 37.60% votes. The BJP could bag only 10.53% votes.

The UDF is trying to polish the image of Adoor Prakash, who has many vigilance cases against him of misuse of power. He was also named in the FIR regarding the infamous Solar Case.  

In the Kollam constituency which witnesses one of the toughest fights in the state, KN Balagopal of LDF will be challenged by NK Premachandran of UDF. Balagopal, hailing from CPI(M), was a member of Rajya Sabha during 2010 and 2016, and he has been awarded the Sansad Ratna Award for his outstanding involvement in the Parliament.

In the Parliament, he demanded transparency in e-commerce in India, pointed out the inadequacy of consumer laws, and stood against the massive 346 per cent increase in user charges collected by the Delhi Airport from the passengers. He advocated for setting up of a wage board for electronic media, where journalists and other employees are facing acute exploitation.

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NK Premachandran of Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) is the sitting parliamentarian from the Kollam constituency, and he had represented the Kollam in Lok Sabha in 1996 and 1998 as well. In 2000, he was even elected to Rajya Sabha. However, the irony is that his party was the part of the Left front back then and they joined in UDF slightly before the 2014 parliamentary elections. When the Kollam seat was denied to RSP in the 2014 elections, they had walked out of the LDF and joined UDF.

Though CPI(M)’s high profile leader MA Baby had been defeated in the 2014 parliamentary elections, 2016 assembly election gives a clear edge to the party this time in Kollam. All the assembly segments that come under Kollam Lok Sabha constituency, Chavara, Punalur, Chadayamangalam, Kundara, Kollam, Eravipuram and Chathannoor, have seen the victory of LDF candidates in 2016  assembly elections.

Though, both the LDF and UDF candidates are busy with the election campaigns, NDA candidate KV Sabu is nowhere in the picture. It is said that Premachandran is close to the BJP camp, and BJP could vote for him to defeat the Left.

On Thursday, state Finance Minister Thomas Isaac alleged that there is a deal between the Congress and the BJP in the state. BJP is contesting from Kollam only for cross-voting rather than gaining some votes for themselves, he said in a Facebook post.

In 2014 elections, the BJP candidate had bagged 6.67% votes, and the difference between the vote share of the LDF and of the UDF was about 4% only. The UDF had secured 46.47% votes and the LDF had secured 42.19% votes.     

While campaigning for the LDF, J Mercykutty Amma, Kerala Minister for Fisheries and Cashew Industries, received a warm welcome from the fisherfolk community.

This move comes in the background of the BJP-led central government ‘selling off’ coastal areas to the private players, which has adversely affected the lives of fisher communities.  

The state government has stepped into this issue and has implemented various policies to improve the life of the people and mitigate the effect of the Centre’s decision. One such initiative is the housing projects, especially for those who suffered during the cyclone Ockhi.

Cashew sector, one of the main industries in Kollam, which had been suffering from neglect has been revived by the Kerala government. Around three lakh workers are employed in this sector. In February this year, the state government had announced a special package to restructure the loans debts. Earlier, in October 2017, the government had set up a Cashew Board as a special purpose vehicle for the development of the cashew industry, which is mainly a small-scale industry. The government also aims to make the cashew sector as a self-sufficient industry and is extensively promoting cashew farming and distribution of high yielding cashew saplings.

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