An intense and fierce three-cornered contest has emerged in the Kovalam constituency as campaigning for the Assembly elections is nearing to a close. Sitting MLA Jameela Prakasam of the Janata Dal (S) is engaged in a tough fight with her opponents M. Vincent of the Congress and Kovalam T.N Suresh of the Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) doing everything possible to unseat her.
The constituency, which had shown clear inclination to Janata Dal (S) in the elections so far, has a sizeable Ezhava and Christian votes. A. Neelalohitadasan Nadar on the Janata Dal ticket had represented the constituency first in 1977 and then in a row from 1987 to 2001. His wife, Jameela Prakasam, won the seat by a margin of 7,025 votes defeating Congress candidate George Mercier in the 2011 election.
While she is hoping to retain the seat on the basis of performance, Congress nominee Mr. Vincent and BDJS candidate Mr. Suresh are vying with each other to take credit for launching the international seaport terminal project at Vizhinjam, which falls in the constituency. Her rival candidates are also using the drinking water crisis card against her.
The BDJS candidate Suresh refutes the UDF candidate’s claim. “The former UPA government at the Centre sat on the Vizhinjam project for almost 10 years. It is Narendra Modi who took the initiative to implement the project,” he added.
