Former Mizoram governor and Bharatiya Janata Party’s Nemom candidate for the 2021 assembly election is perhaps BJPs most well-known face in Kerala. The saffron stable is banking on this seat for its heavyweight as it was the one and maiden constituency which it scored in the assembly elections of 2016. Back then, O Rajagopal defeated CPMs V Sivankutty by securing more than 47% of the votes polled.

The 68-year-old contested the 2019 general elections from Thiruvananthapuram which encompasses the Nemom constituency. Although he lost the seat, Nemom showed that its 2016 performance was not a fluke. Rajasekharan led the segment with over 12,000 votes.

Also Read: Kerala Assembly Election 2021: Everything you need to know

Rajasekharan started off by heading several Hindu religious and social organizations with most of them being affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He has also spearheaded many movements against religious atrocities. In 1987, he first contested an election from Thiruvananthpuram as a Hindu Munnani ticket.

Ever since he stepped into public life, controversies and Rajasekharan have always gone hand-in-hand. In 2015, he demanded that vendors from other religious denominations are disallowed to operate and that temple committees should be given right to make decisions regarding the same. This backfired as both the opposition and the government of the day issued statements against his demands. Come May 2017, he posted a video on his social media account claiming that CPI(M) activists were celebrating the murder of an RSS worker. The video eventually turned out to be fake.

All in all, the Nemom seat is a hot potato and the contest would certainly be more looked out for than others and whether BJP could hold on to the seat which was its gateway to the state.