A Day On The Campaign Trail With BJP's Pon Radhakrishnan In Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari

Kanyakumari, at the southern tip of India, is one of the few constituencies of Tamil Nadu in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has had a strong presence since the last few decades, naturally making it one of the key targets for the party.

Prior to the 2009 delimitation, the Kanyakumari seat was called Nagercoil. It comprises of six assembly segments — Kanyakumari, Nagercoil, Colachel, Padmanabhapuram, Vilavancode and Killiyoor.

In the 2021 Assembly elections, four of these six were won by the DMK-Congress alliance and the remaining two by the NDA. S Vijayadharani, the Congress MLA from Vilavancode, joined the BJP a few months ago.

The BJP has fielded Pon Radhakrishnan, a party veteran and former Union Minister of State for Finance, Shipping and Highways, for the Lok Sabha elections. He has a background in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Hindu Munnani. This is Radhakrishnan’s tenth election.

Radhakrishnan has won from the seat twice, i.e., in 1999 and 2014. 

His main competitor is Vijay Vasanth, the son of the late Congress MP and business baron H Vasanthakumar. The AIADMK has fielded Basilion Nazareth.

The highest-ever vote share for the BJP was in the 2021 by-elections, in which Radhakrishnan secured 39.92 per cent. It consistently secured a vote share of over 30 per cent in previous elections — 35 per cent in 2019, 37.6 per cent in 2014 and 33.2 per cent in 2009.

Early in the morning, on 8 April, Swarajya was introduced to Radhakrishnan by Niranjan EPN, who works closely with him. After a brief conversation, Radhakrishnan left to attend a few internal party meetings. I was to join him later in the day when he would begin his campaign in an open jeep.

Niranjan and I then proceeded to the BJP election office in Nagercoil, where he gave me an overview of the constituency.

How confident are you of a win here, I ask him. 

“As you already know, Kanyakumari has a strong BJP presence. I believe we have a good chance of winning here,” Niranjan said.

What makes you feel confident of a win here, I asked — pointing to the fact that the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) had left the NDA and that the Congress and the DMK were in alliance this time unlike in 2014 when AIADMK was not part of the NDA and the latter contested separately.

“There are a few factors. There is anti-incumbency against the DMK due to issues like corruption. It is common knowledge that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is coming back to power unlike in 2019 when there was an anti-Modi wave created by the opposition in the state. Also, people are not satisfied with Vijay Vasanth. He hasn’t brought development to the constituency.”

I then asked him what he makes of the DMK-Congress alliance. It is considered by many to be an unbeatable combination due to its vote share and the demographics — Christians and Muslims together make up more than 51 per cent of the population. It is also important to note that both of Radhakrishnan’s victories in the past have come when Congress and DMK were not in alliance.

Answering the question, Niranjan said, “It is true that neither of Radhakrishnan’s victories have come when the the two parties were in alliance but as I said before, there are a number of factors in our favour."

"Also, the by-election results of 2021 are a testament to the decline in popularity of the DMK-Congress alliance. While Vasanthakumar won with a margin of around two and a half lakh votes, Vijay Vasanth’s victory margin was around one lakh and thirty-five thousand. I believe that a large chunk of those votes came to us and the Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) of Seeman.”

The NTK, it must be noted, had secured a vote share of 5.34 per cent in the 2021 by-elections, up from 1.63 per cent in 2019.

How big a factor is the AIADMK, I asked, as our discussion regarding vote shares of each party continued.

“It is not as large as the DMK, for sure. But it has a traditional vote bank, i.e., those who would vote for the two leaves symbol, come what may. I would peg that number to not below 10 per cent. In 2009, when the AIADMK-led alliance fielded a candidate from the CPI(M), he secured 11.18 per cent. I don’t think they will go below that.” 

What is it in Radhakrishnan that has made the party back him multiple times? I ask.

“It is because he is seen as an MP who has brought considerable development to the constituency unlike say, N Dennis, who represented this area for over 15 years," Niranjan says.

He adds, “Among the important contributions of Radhakrishnan are the establishment of a government medical college, construction of flyovers that have made travel to and from Thiruvananthapuram shorter, 4-lane roads, double-lining and electrification of railways etc."

“Development is something that the people resonate with. A number of projects got stuck after his loss in 2019 because the MPs who came after him were not willing to pursue such projects.”

Swarajya then spoke with M Ajith Kumar, who is the party’s in charge for the Nagercoil municipal corporation. Kumar was guiding party members who were to accompany election officials going to homes to collect the votes of those aged above 85 years.

You are from Nagercoil. What are some of the promises made by the party for the city, I ask.

“Work on a drinking water supply scheme from a nearby dam is going on slowly. We believe Radhakrishnan can speed it up if he wins the election. Further, we want to build a modern bus port for the city.”

Has M R Gandhi being the MLA of Nagercoil, helped the party? I asked, recalling that the assembly constituency has an MLA from the BJP.

“Yes. It is helping. He has done what he can as an MLA, i.e., smaller road works, drainage works, building or renovating bus stops and Anganwadis etc.”

Listening to our conversation, Siva Sudhan, also from Nagercoil and a state secretary of the Data Management Cell joins in. 

“The implementation of the Modi government’s schemes like PM AWAS, Ujjwala and Jal Jeevan have been helping us.”

We often hear the BJP say that the DMK government is putting its sticker on central government schemes. Is that happening here and if so how are you countering it?

“Yes, it has been happening here too. We are countering it through social media and pocket meetings in junctions.”

The BJP has a committed vote bank. Who then is the key for the party to take it to victory?

“It is the first time voters and undecided voters. We have to bring them towards us. Annamalai’s En Mann En Makkal padayatra has helped us in this to a large extent. Also, a section of Christians, i.e., the Roman Catholic Nadars have shown an inclination to vote for us this time. Fishermen, especially from this community are not happy with Vijay Vasanth.”

While we were still conversing, Swarajya was informed that Radhakrishnan had started his campaign in Killiyoor, which is around 30-40 kilometres away from where we were so it would be better that we start right away so that we could join him in one of the scheduled stops.

I was accompanied by Sekar Chandrasekhar, the secretary of the District IT Wing. 

Please tell me about Killiyoor, I asked Chandrasekhar as we proceeded on our journey. 

“A large part of the population is that of daily wage labourers. Because of that the communists have a significant presence here. Rubber farming is an important economic activity here. Population-wise, the majority is Christian.”

Continuing the conversation, he said, “Our district is rich in natural resources. We have plenty of food. Coconuts, rice and fish — all of these are affordable and in abundance." 

“What we lack is industries to provide employment to the youth. We need to attract the IT and manufacturing industries here. B Ed colleges and nursing colleges in the district are high in number and because of that, you would find that when you go elsewhere in the state, there are a huge number of teachers and nurses from Kanyakumari. While it is good, we also need to have more engineering colleges.”

By then, we had reached a village near Thengapattinam, where Radhakrishnan’s convoy was expected to arrive shortly. 

Once it arrived, I bid goodbye to Chandrasekhar and joined Radhakrishnan to take in a bit of his journey through the constituency.

Accompanying Radhakrishnan in the open jeep was M R Gandhi, the MLA from Nagercoil, a few party functionaries and policemen. The front of the convoy was composed of party members with BJP flags, riding their motorcycles. A number of cars of party members and supporters followed us.

As he had to cover a number of villages and towns that day, he kept his speeches short. There were stops every 10-15 minutes. During each stop, he was felicitated by the local party functionaries. The arrival of the convoy was celebrated by bursting of crackers.

While travelling, slogans in praise of Radhakrishnan’s work for Kanyakumari, the achievements of the Modi government and urging people to vote for the Lotus symbol were played through the sound system.

After four or five such stops, the convoy stopped for lunch, which was arranged at the home of a party member.

“You’ll notice that the cooking has been done in Kerala style,” said Nagarajan, an assistant of Radhakrishnan, just as we sat down to eat. "The border is about 20 kilometres from here," he added. 

I was told I could speak to Radhakrishnan after the meal but that did not happen as he needed to take a rest for a while and many people had been waiting to meet him.

While we were on the way out, he said, “Unfortunately, I am having a very tight schedule. We’ll speak while travelling in the jeep itself.” And thus, I was soon back in the campaign vehicle for the second leg of his tour of Killiyoor.

When I finally started speaking to him, I asked him what was different in this election, given that he had contested in nearly a dozen before.

"There is a strong feeling among voters that there should be an MP who will bring development for them. People clearly know that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be back at the centre and by voting me in, Kanyakumari will have a representative who will not be in opposition but work with the central government to make this area realise its true potential," Radhakrishnan said, as he waved at people and party workers waiting along the road to catch a glimpse of him.

I then asked him what he thought would be the impact of the AIADMK leaving the NDA?

"Regarding the question of the AIADMK split, there is no impact," he claimed, adding, "There is no question about that. We are working for our victory. We have our own alliance. They have their own alliance. We are fighting both AIADMK and DMK."

When asked how confident he was of his victory in Kanyakumari this time, Radhakrishnan assertively said "cent-percent."

I then asked Radhakrishnan why he believed he would be elected.

"Because of the mood of the people, i.e., the voters. They want a change. Just 10 minutes back, before I came for this open campaign, a father from the Roman Catholic community called me and told me that this time we want a change, we want development in the district and that he hoped that if I came to power, development will definitely occur," he said.

But on the question of religion being an issue in this election in Kanyakumari, Radhakrishnan disagreed, saying it was not an issue.

One of the very first points in Radhakrishnan's list of promises for Kanyakumari is bringing Navodaya Vidyalayas. Why is it so important? I asked him next.

"Navodaya Vidyalayas are important for providing high-quality education to poor children. We do not have Navodaya Vidyalayas in Tamil Nadu due to political reasons. They do not want to allow schools with a three-language policy," he said.

"Some years back when Smriti Irani was the HRD minister and she announced 62 new Navodaya Vidyalayas, I requested her that some of them should come up in Tamil Nadu as we did not have any. I spoke to both the DMK and the AIADMK but they did not agree."

"I do not think children should be deprived of good educational opportunities or the option to learn a language just because of political reasons. Even now there are a number of schools in the state, even some run by DMK politicians, that have a CBSE syllabus and Hindi as an option. They are not allowing poor children to learn Hindi," he added.

Given that infrastructure is one of the top promises the BJP is making to voters in every part of the country, including in Tamil Nadu, Radhakrishnan also spoke about the projects he wants to focus on in Kanyakumari.

"We have undertaken railway double lining and electrification works in several routes in southern districts. In my constituency, the double-lining work between Nagercoil and Kanyakumari is going on. This has been a demand for the last few decades and so I am happy that we have been able to fulfill it. We are also redeveloping the Kanyakumari railway station with modern amenities," he says.

"We plan to bring an airport in the district because currently the nearest airports are Thiruvananthapuram and Thoothukudi, both of which are more than 2 hours away."

I then asked him about the issues in the Killiyoor segment, which the Congress' S Rajeshkumar had won in the 2021 Assembly polls with nearly 60 per cent vote share.

"We want to improve the livelihoods of the fishermen and farming community. The fishing harbour in Thengapattinam is one such measure. Apart from that a lot of work has to be done to improve the condition of roads in the rural areas," he told Swarajya.

There were a few stops in between in villages under the Painkulam and Kilkulam panchayats where Radhakrishnan addressed the people and urged them to vote for him to bring back Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister.

Resuming the conversation, he said, “I have always stood for the development of the constituency. But it is not easy to bring about development especially when others are not as serious or are politically opposed to you.”

“Could you please elaborate?” I asked.

“Sure. There was a project for a 4-lane road here. We started the process for it in the early 2000s. After my tenure as MP ended, the project was not taken up. 10 years later when I came to power again, I accelerated the project."

"Mano Thangaraj, a DMK MLA and minister from this district here filed a case against one of the road projects planned in the district. There is also rampant illegal mining of minerals which are then transported to Kerala in ‘Taurus’ lorries. 36 people have lost their lives in the past two years and the ruling party was not willing to give a single condolence message."

"While on the one hand, illegal mining of minerals is rampant, the state government does not supply raw material and that has been stalling highway and road projects.

"Fishermen have also been affected. A fishing harbour was sanctioned in this assembly constituency by the central government. The central government gave over Rs 200 crore and the state government contributed about Rs 40 crore. But it was not constructed properly and 18 fishermen lost their lives. Fishermen now want a change in the design of the fishing harbour."

I then asked him if the arrest of fishermen by Sri Lanka a talking point here.

"The issue is mostly in the Ramanathapuram area. Fishermen here are going for deep sea fishing and also going towards the west, i.e., the Arabian Sea," he explained, adding, "But whenever fishermen come to me with grievances like the arrest of their brethren by the Sri Lankan Navy, or losses due to cyclones etc, I do my best to help them by getting in touch with the central government."

While our conversation ended here, I travelled with the convoy for a while longer.

At the Karungal bus stand, where we arrived about half an hour later, I bid goodbye to Radhakrishnan and his team and made my way back to Nagercoil.

This report is part of Swarajya's 50 Ground Stories Project - an attempt to throw light on themes and topics that are often overlooked or looked down. You can support this initiative by sponsoring as little as ₹2999. Click here for more details.