Nemom, the southern gateway to Kerala’s capital city, threw up a result that stunned the entire State and led to discussions even at the national level following the Assembly elections of 2016.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had finally won a seat in the Assembly, after years of being an also ran, even when they were in the heights of powers at the centre.
CPI(M)’s V. Sivankutty, who had defeated BJP’s O. Rajagopal in the previous elections in 2011, lost to him in 2016 despite increasing his votes from 50,076 to 59,142 in five years.
The Congress, which had won the constituency with 60,884 votes in 2006 had given the seat to UDF ally Janata Dal (United), whose candidate V. Surendran Pillai could win only 13,860 votes in 2016, leading the Left to accuse the UDF of handing over the constituency in a platter to the BJP.
However, by fielding a heavyweight like K. Muraleedharan, the Congress is seeking to counter this accusation this time.
The BJP, meanwhile, used the foothold it gained here to consolidate its position, with Kummanam Rajasekharan gaining a lead in the Nemom segment in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, which Congress candidate Shashi Tharoor won. This could be a confidence-booster for Mr. Rajasekharan, going into the Assembly elections.
The BJP also managed to win 11 wards out of a total of 21 wards of the Thiruvananthapuram city Corporation in the Nemom segment in the recent local body elections. The LDF won eight wards and UDF two.
When Mr. Sivankutty contests from here for a third time, the LDF is hoping that the Congress polling all its votes using a strong candidate could work to the Left’s advantage.
The Nemom constituency came into the limelight for the first time in the 1982 Assembly elections, when Congress leader K. Karunakaran contested from two seats.
After winning both Mala and Nemom, he decided to resign from the Nemom constituency, leading to a byelection, which was won by V.J. Thankappan of the CPI(M). Thankappan went on to score a hat-trick, retaining the constituency till 1996.
In the first elections from here in 1957, the CPI’s A. Sadasivan won against Praja Socialist Party (PSP)'s P. Vishwambharan. The results reversed in the next election with Vishwambharan becoming an MLA from here in 1960.
In the first five elections from the constituency, only the Left or the Socialist parties have won. The Congress first made its mark in the elections of 1977 when S. Varadarajan Nair defeated CPI(M) candidate Pallichal Sadasivan. Varadarajan Nair, who contested as a candidate of the Congress (U) in 1980 after the split in the party, was defeated by Congress (I) candidate E. Rameshan Nair.
The constituency was won by the UDF and LDF twice each in the four elections since 1996, until the BJP won in 2016. Congress’s N. Sakthan managed to retain the constituency for two terms after winning in 2001. The elections in 2011, after delimitation of the constituency, threw up favourable results for the LDF, but the gains were soon lost owing to BJP’s growth and the weakening of the Congress in some of the areas.
With both the LDF and the UDF keen to regain the seat, and the BJP fighting hard to retain their sole seat in the Assembly, Nemom is one constituency where the results can be unpredictable due to a tight triangular contest.
