Nemom contest: The battle for the BJP’s Kerala fortress

New Delhi, Apr 05: Nemom, a tiny suburb located on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram is set to witness one of the toughest triangular fights in its history. The seat holds significance as the major political fronts-BJP-NDA, Congress-led UDF and CPI(M)-headed LDF are facing a do-or-die situation in the constituency, which has already garnered national attention.

All three major political parties, the UDF, the LDF and the BJP have fielded Nair candidates this time. Nairs, are a dominant force in Kerala politics.

The BJP has fielded Kummanam Rajasekharan to retain its prestige seat, while Congress has fielded firebrand Congress leader K Muraleedharan, literally make it a prestigious contest. CPM has fielded V Sivankutty to wrest the seat. He had represented Nemom from 2011 to 2016 .

The Nemom contest seems to be an electrifying one as the three candidates are popular names with a mass base.

With nearly 2 lakh voters, Nemom has a large chunk of upper-caste Hindu votes besides a considerable Muslim and Nadar community votes.

BJP created history after it's veteran and former union minister O Rajagopal won Nemom in the 2016 assembly polls garnering 67,813 votes and defeating V Sivankutty who secured 59,142 votes. The UDF candidate V Surendran Pillai (JD-S) could finish only in a distant third with 13,860 votes.

Both the traditional fronts- LDF and UDF- had won the constituency twice each in four elections since 1996, until the BJP wreted the seat in 2016.

Of the total 1,57, 949 votes polled in Nemom assembly segment during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP candidate garnered 58,513 votes while Congress and CPI nominees 46,472 and 33,921 votes respectively.

A CSDS data revealed that in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, nearly one out of every two Nair voters voted for the BJP.

Opinion Poll

According to a recent survey by Mathrubhumi C-Voter, the LDF in Kerala is likely to win 75 to 83 seats.

The pre-poll results say that the LDF will win around 75 to 83 seats in the Kerala Assembly Elections 2021. The UDF would get 56-64 and the NDA 0-2. The LDF would bag 40.9 per cent of the votes, while the UDF will get 37.9 per cent and the NDA 16.6