Congress has an edge over CPM in Alappuzha

AICC organisation general secretary, K.C. Venugopal is contesting from this seat.

The constituency to watch in Kerala in the general elections is Alappuzha, where Congress has fielded its AICC organisation general secretary, K.C. Venugopal. After winning the constituency in 2009 and 2014, he did not contest for the third time in 2019 and subsequently the party lost the seat.

In 2019, Congress candidate Shanimol Usmam lost the seat by just 10,000 votes. The winning candidate, A.M. Ariff of the CPM, had polled 40.96% of votes, followed by Usman who had got 40%. BJP’s Dr K.S. Radhakrishnan polled 17.24%. A leader in the state said, “Last time, the seat was lost because the Venugopal did not contest.” The Congress won the seat for the first time in 1977 and since then the seat has been switching between the Left and the grand old party. Venugopal had wrested the seat from K.S. Manoj of CPM in 2009 and retained it in 2014.

Moreover, in the last 17 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress has held the seat for the maximum number of times—eight—followed by CPI(M) five times, and CPI three times. This time, Sobha Surendran from BJP, K.C. Venugopal from Congress and A.M. Ariff from CPM will battle for the seat. A Congress leader in Kerala said, “Venugopal has an edge over his counterpart, because there is a great deal of anti-incumbency against the sitting MP from CPM.

However, if BJP performs well and cuts into the anti-incumbency vote, then things may get difficult for the Congress.”

Venugopal who is a Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan will have to give up that membership if he wins the Lok Sabha seat. If that happens, the Congress could subsequently lose Venugopal’s seat in the Upper House in a bypoll, as it doesn’t have the numbers in Rajasthan Assembly to retain the Rajya Sabha seat.

A political observer said, “The plan to contest the general election could have been made in order to set an example for all other senior leaders who were told by the high command to contest the election. As they have been unwilling to contest, thereby Venugopal was fielded in the very first list to send a message to the top leaders that every big leader should contest the elections.”

After the declaration of his candidature, Venugopal said, “It is very clear that this is the Lok Sabha election that will decide the future of the country. Our target is to win the maximum number of seats in this Lok Sabha election and then eradicate this fascist government. We are looking to win the maximum seats that we can.”