Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan Stares At Defeat In Kanyakumari As All BJP Candidates Trail In Tamil Nadu

Union Minister of State for Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan is trailing his Congress rival H Vasantha Kumar by over 70,000 votes from the Kanyakumari constituency in Tamil Nadu, say latest trends.

Radhakrishnan was the lone winner for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2014 elections from the state in a multi-cornered contest. Available trends show other BJP candidates trailing their rivals in all the five constituencies they are contesting from.

BJP insiders told Swarajya that they have given up on the seat soon after elections got over. Christians make up nearly 50 per cent of the population in Kanyakumari district, which usually tends to toe Kerala’s line in elections.

In Kerala, Congress-led United Democratic Front was leading in 19 of the 20 parliamentary seats.

The church was seen instrumental in getting the community as a whole to vote against the BJP and thus dent hopes of Radhakrishnan to get re-elected.

The sitting member of parliament is facing this situation despite carrying out many welfare and development projects in the constituency.

Incidentally, Vasantha Kumar is the uncle of state BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan, whose father Kumari Ananthan headed the Congress at one time during the 1990s. Ananthan is a staunch follower of the late K Kamaraj, who was the state chief minister in the 1960s and pioneered the mid-day meal scheme for school children.

Radhakrishnan’s prospects were also affected by the controversy over setting up a port at Enayam in Kanyakumari.