A three-cornered battle is shaping up in the Aruvikkara Assembly by-election with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) deciding to field party veteran O. Rajagopal as its candidate to take on M. Vijayakumar of the CPI(M) and former Speaker G. Karthikeyan’s son K.S. Sabarinath of the Congress.
The BJP State core committee zeroed in on Mr. Rajagopal after discussing various possibilities, including fielding one of its State secretaries C. Sivan Kutty and national executive member Shobha Surendran. The core committee decided to pick Mr. Rajagopal, who had put up a strong showing in the last Lok Sabha election, to capitalise on the gains he had made in the Assembly segment and to see if it could upset the calculations of the rival fronts.
Emerging from the BJP core committee meeting, party State unit president V. Muraleedharan said Mr. Rajagopal’s name would be placed before the BJP national parliamentary board for its approval and formally announced once the approval was received. Mr. Rajagopal told the media that he had agreed to abide by the decision of the party leadership and would be available to fight the electoral battle at Aruvikkara.
As the BJP candidate in the last Lok Sabha election, Mr. Rajagopal had increased the party’s tally in the Aruvikkara segment from 7,000 votes in 2011 to around 15,000 votes in the Lok Sabha election.
The BJP had subsequently gone in for a membership drive and the party’s calculation is that it will be able to put up a stronger showing this time.
Tough battle
With Mr. Rajagopal’s entry into the fray almost certain, the rival fronts had a tough battle on their hands, their main worry being the possibility of negative votes flowing in his direction. The LDF State committee, which met here on Sunday, had decided to formally launch its campaign with an election convention in the constituency on Wednesday.
BJP decides to field O. Rajagopal as
its candidate
