The most watched battle of the 16th lok Sabha election in Kerala is happening perhaps in Kollam constituency. In all senses, this battle is not about just winning a seat or losing it but it is about pride and prestige for both the CPI(M)-led lDF and the Congress-led UDF. What is happening in Kollam is a war of the Reds.

The fight is between the CPI(M) and the RSP which had been leading a joint war against the Congress, the UDF an d the UPA till less than a fortnight ago. On March 8, the RSP, an lDF constituent for the past 34 years, left the left camp, stunning the Marxists, and joined the UDF the very following day, stunning them further.

For the same reason, winning the seat is equally inevitable to both sides. A victory is absolutely necessary for the CPI(M) and the lDF to satisfy their political ego whereas the RSP needs it to prove to the Marxists and the Congress alike that it had not left the lDF for nothing. For the same reason, the political temperature on the election scene remains constantly high in Kollam.

The war is made all the more important by the personalities in the battlefield. The lDF candidate is CPI(M) Politbureau member MA Baby, MlA from Kundara, an Assembly segment in Kollam, and the UDF aspirant is RSP’s most popular leader in Kerala, NK Premachandran. Both were Ministers in the 2006-11 lDF Government headed by VS Achuthanandan.

The BJP candidate in Kollam is State party Vice-President PM Velayudhan, who is fighting his fifth electoral battle to the lok Sabha. The vote-share of the BJP in the 2009 election was 4.4 per cent and the projection this time is that it could go up to eight per cent. Considering the demography of the constituency, the UDF fears that the BJP’s gain could weaken it.

The Kollam seat is presently held by N Peethambara Kurup of the Congress but even the RSP would have admitted a few days ago that it was just an aberration. Premachandran himself had won the seat for the lDF in the 1996 and 1998 lok Sabha elections while P Rajendran of the CPI(M) had represented the constituency in parliament from 1999 to 2009.

“That proves how strong the roots of the left are in Kollam,” says journalist Girish Kumar. “A constituency known for its population of the proletariat, fishermen, cashew farms, etc — Kollam is intrinsically a left bastion — though the Congress has had its occasional wins too. So it is interesting to watch how two left parties are fighting for it now,” he says.

On March 9, the UDF welcomed the RSP into it and approved the candidature of Premachandran in Kollam, giving some credence to the Marxists’ allegation that the RSP had struck a deal with the Congress and the UDF much before leaving the lDF. Observers say that Kollam is seeing a hard battle.

The CPI(M) took over the Kollam seat from the RSP in 1999 on the ground that it had become weaker after a split in it. The RSP asked the CPI(M) to return the seat to it in 2004 but the Marxists did not listen. It again asked the Marxists for the seat in 2009 but there was no favourable reply. Five more years later, there was no change in the CPI(M) attitude.

The CPI(M) was of the opinion that the RSP, a regional political phenomenon almost confined to Kollam district, did not have a mass base. Also, the split had affected it very badly, the Marxist said. They pointed out that Premachandran himself had been defeated in the 2001 election in Chavara, an Assembly segment within the Kollam Parliament constituency.

 “It is not yet clear how the working class bases in Kollam would react to the decision of the RSP to align with Congress. That will be the most crucial factor,” admitted a senior RSP leader from Chadayamangalam, an Assembly segment in the Kollam lok Sabha constituency.