The dominance of the Congress in its fortress — Kanyakumari Lok Sabha Constituency — has collapsed with the emergence of BJP candidate Pon. Radhakrishnan.
Congress candidate H. Vasantha Kumar could not secure a substantial chunk of votes from three Assembly segments, which were believed to be the Congress bastions.
The Congress, BJP, DMK, AIADMK, CPI (M) and AAP had contested from this constituency. From the beginning itself, it was predicted that there would be a neck-and-neck fight between Congress and BJP.
Proving this, from the first round of counting itself, both the BJP and the Congress candidates surged ahead, pushing other political parties to the back. Kanyakumari constituency comprises six Assembly segments — Kanyakumari, Nagercoil, Colachel, Padmanabhapuram, Killiyoor and Vilavancode.
Of the six, Killiyoor, Vilavancode and Colachel were Congress bastions and the sitting MLAs from these constituencies are also from the Congress. Therefore, it was predicted that the Congress candidate would score more number of votes from these segments. However, the Congress candidate got more number of votes only from Killiyoor constituency and in the remaining two segments, he did not get much.
In Killiyoor Assembly segment, the Congress secured 52,095 votes. But, in the remaining two Assembly segments of the Congress bastions, the BJP polled more votes. In Colachel and Vilavancode, the BJP secured 22,936 and 6,849 votes more than the Congress party.
Meanwhile, in Nagercoil and Kanyakumari Assembly segments, the BJP secured more than the Congress with over 45,000 votes each, and this has helped the BJP win by a higher vote margin. Kanyakumari and Nagercoil Assembly segments are believed to be AIADMK strongholds. Voters from these two segments used to support AIADMK in Assembly elections and the BJP in Lok Sabha elections.
But, as the AIADMK also contested this Lok Sabha elections, it was expected that the BJP would get less number of votes from these two Assembly segments. However, the BJP got a huge number of votes more votes from Kanyakumari (73,481) and Nagercoil (71,876).
Similarly, Mr. Vasantha Kumar’s native Agasteeswaram comes under the Kanyakumari Assembly segment where the Congress scored only a meagre of 25,770 votes.
Interestingly, in postal votes also, the BJP got a major share. Of the 1,048 postal votes polled, 420 were rejected and the BJP got 334 votes and Congress got 145 votes.
However, the DMK candidate F.M. Rajaratinam, who lost his deposit, revealed that he lost minority votes.
It was believed that the APP candidate, S.P. Udayakumar would get coastal votes due to the Kudankulam issue. But, it did not happen due to the ‘Modi factor’, pointed out the office-bearer of APP in Nagercoil.
