Who is K Surendran?

K Surendran, who is contesting from two Kerala seats – Manjeshwar and Konni, is leading the BJP charge in the southern state. The BJP president is at the helm of the party’s effort to make inroads in the state that has for many years seen a two-cornered contest between the Congress-led UDF and the CPI(M)-led LDF. 

Also Read: Kerala election results: Pinarayi Vijayan’s LDF takes early lead, looks to make history

The 51-year-old politician was born in Kozhikode district and started his political career with the Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarathi Parishad, which is Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s student wing. He was then made the state president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. Surendran contested from the Pathanamthitta constituency in the 2019 polls and came third behind the Congress and CPI(M). He was made the state president of BJP in 2020. 

Also Read: Who is Kummanam Rajasekharan, senior BJP leader contesting from Kerala’s Nemom

Speaking about battling it out from two constituencies in the 2021 elections, he said it would be
interesting as he believes people from both areas have reposed faith in him and
his party. Issues that took centre stage in his poll campaign ranged from
development to “love jihad”, and corruption.

Manjeshwar: UDF has
retained the seat for the past 15 years but winds of change are clearly visible
on the ground and even in the last assembly election, UDFs PB Abdul Razak’s win
was a photo finish as he won by a thin margin of just 89 votes. Razak later
died and the bypoll election was won by his party member MC Qamaruddin
comfortably by over 8,000 votes. The BJP had fielded Kuntaru Raveesh
Tantry back then.

Soon after filing his
nomination on March 19, Surendran took a jibe at CM Pinarayi Vijayan for his comments
against BJP candidate and  ‘metroman’ E Sreedharan saying the former gets
furious on seeing good people because of his regular association with evil
beings. The main contender is UDFs AKM Ashraf while LDFs B Rameshan is also in
the fray.

Also Read: Exit polls give thin win to Mamata in Bengal, show Left returning in Kerala

Konni: Surendran said
that this constituency is an emotional connection between him and the people as it
was one of the epicentres  of the Sabarimala agitation. He hopes to ride on the
anti-incumbency sentiments and script history by winning it by a huge vote
share. His main opposition comes from the UDF, which has fielded Robin Peter. Meanwhile, KU Jenish Kumar is the LDF
candidate from this seat. Both the parties, which have ruled Kerala since
independence, have maintained that the Sabarimala issue is a non-starter, it
would certainly be on the voter’s tick list while exercising their franchise on
April 6.