Former Mizoram governor and BJP state president Kumkanam Rajasekharan is likely to contest the upcoming bye-election in Vattiyoorkavu constituency of Thiruvananthapuram. Kummanam lost to Congress's Shashi Tharoor in the Lok Sabha elections.
Vattiyoorkavu bye-elections will be held on October 21, along with the constituencies of Ernakulam, Aroor, Konni and Manjeshwaram. The results will be declared on October 24.
For the Vattiyoorkavu bye-polls, the party district unit has suggested two names to the state leadership and Kummanam is likely to be the first pick. The other name in the list is BJP Thiruvananthapuram District President S Suresh.
"There was no formal listing of names, nor did we submit a list to the state leadership. But the names suggested by the district unit those of Kummanam and me, based on the possibility to win. We had suggested the names more than a week ago," Suresh told TNM.
Kummanam was the party's candidate in the constituency during the 2016 Assembly elections as well.
He is one of the strongest figures of the party in the state and the party had high hopes while fielding him in Vattiyoorkavu as well as in the Lok Sabha elections.
He had given a tough fight to the senior leader of the Congress, K Muraleedharan, and came second pushing TN Seema of the CPI(M) to the third place in the 2016 elections.
Muraleedharan secured 51,322 votes while Kummanam had 43,700 votes. Vattiyoorkavu, that comes under the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency, is one of the strongholds of the BJP in the state.
The party's state leadership, however, has not been finalized the candidate yet.
However, Kummanam reportedly told media in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday that he was not interested to contest the elections but it was up to the party to decide.
"I do not have an interest in contesting, nor have I asked anyone else to contest from the constituency. It is the party which should take the decision. The probability of winning depends on ideas and ideology and not on individuals. I had contested the polls from the constituency in the last Assembly elections. I was defeated as the CPI(M) and the Congress joined hands. K Muraleedharan himself had stated that he won the election with the help of the CPI(M)," Kummanam said.
"There's a party meeting to be held on Sunday that would decide the candidates for the bye-election. It will be confirmed after discussing in the NDA meeting," BJP state president PS Sreedharan Pillai told TNM.
While Tharoor got 4,16,131 votes in the LS polls, Kummanam secured 3,16,142 votes and CPI's C Divakaran won 2,58,556 votes.
BJP's lone legislator in Kerala, O Rajagopal, represents Nemom, the constituency neighbouring Vattiyoorkkavu.