Kummanam Rajasekharan, the Governor of Mizoram, has resigned from his office on Friday and the President of India has accepted his resignation. Kummanam, the former Kerala State BJP president, had been sworn in as Mizoram Governor on May 25, 2018. President Ram Nath Kovind has appointed Jagdish Mukhi, Governor of Assam, to discharge the functions of the Governor of Mizoram, in addition to his own duties, until regular arrangements for the office of the Governor of Mizoram is made.
As TNM had reported in February, Kummanam’s name was doing the rounds as the probable BJP candidate to contest from Thiruvananthapuram. The discussions then had been whether Kummanam will be back before completing a year in the Governor’s post. With his resignation, it does seem like Kummanam Rajasekharan will contest in this Lok Sabha polls.
“The state unit of the BJP as a whole supports him to be the candidate of Thiruvananthapuram," BJP state president PS Sreedharan Pillai told TNM. Kummanam will face LDF candidate C Divakaran, a sitting MLA of the CPI and Shashi Tharoor of the Congress, the current MP who is most likely to contest again.
The BJP believes that Thiruvananthapuram is a constituency in which the party had a chance to win, considering the polarisation following the Sabarimala controversy.
Kummanam contested the Assembly elections in 2016 from the Vattiyoorkavu constituency in Thiruvananthapuram. Vattiyoorkavu was one of the constituencies that the BJP had hoped it would win. The constituency witnessed a triangular fight, between Kummanam, V Muaraleedharan of the Congress and TN Seema of the CPI (M). He gave a tough fight and came second by winning 43.7% votes.