All eyes at Nemom, the 'Gujarat' of Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: Nemom constituency in the heart of the State capital, often referred to as the 'Gujarat of Kerala' by the BJP here will soon become the cynosure of all eyes when the election campaign heats up. This is the only seat which the BJP won in the 140-member Kerala Assembly, and the Congress is working hard to field a high profile candidate to snatch the seat.

For the past few days, things have come to a standstill in the Congress as its top state leaders are staying put in New Delhi to finalise their list of candidates. The stumbling block before them is whom to field from Nemom, as they want to put an end to the canards of the ruling CPI-M leaders, who have been saying that in Kerala the Congress and the BJP are hand in glove.

Ever since the BJP opened its account after winning the Nemom seat in the 2016 polls, when its stalwart O Rajagopal won the seat with a margin of 8,671 seat and the Congress-led UDF candidate finished a poor third, the CPI-M has been saying that it was the game plan of the Congress to allow the BJP to open their account.

The CPI-M in the upcoming election has made this point in its main campaign here. It has fielded V Sivankutty, who won in 2011 and lost in 2016. The Congress candidate for this seat is yet to be finalised. Since the past two days, the names of two time former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala and also Lok Sabha member K. Muraleedharan have been doing the rounds.