After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced Sobha Surendran’s candidacy for the Kazhakuttam Assembly constituency in Kerala, there was new interest in this seat located in the south of the state where a sitting legislator and state minister too contested. Finally, it was won by Kadakampally Surendran, the minister and candidate for the Left Democratic Front (LDF), beating Sobha Surendran.
Initially, there was some uncertainty over Sobha’s candidature, with a few likely names floating around. The BJP had initially not announced its candidate for Kazhakuttam, whereas it named party president K Surendran at two constituencies. There had been reports of bickering between the two leaders within the party and Sobha had made vague comments after Surendran’s candidature announcement. She had stated that she would contest only if she was fielded from Kazhakuttam. And the BJP later made peace with the leader, announcing her name for Kazhakkuttam.
This is also the constituency from where Union BJP Minister V Muraleedharan contested and came second during the last Assembly election.
The LDF’s candidate, sitting MLA and Minister for Devaswom, Tourism and Cooperation Kadakampally Surendran, and Sobha Surendran too had been at loggerheads over the issue of Sabarimala women’s entry in previous years. For this election too, Sobha had used it as a campaign issue while Kadakampally made a vague statement of regret over the incidents at Sabarimala, not specifying what he was regretful about.
TheUDF’s candidate was Dr SS Lal, a medical doctor and state president of the All India Professionals’ Congress. He has also been a regular panelist in television news debates.
Kazhakuttam being the location of the oldest and greenest IT park in the country, there was a lot of focus on development and the issues of Technopark employees living in the vicinity. Knowing the voters’ concern, the candidates too had projected development issues they would deal with on winning the seat.