BJP's Controversial Pon. Radhakrishnan Fielded From Religiously Polarised Kanyakumari (image-X/ Pon Radhakrishnan)The BJP has fielded the well-known Pon. Radhakrishnan, known for helming several developmental projects such as expediting work on the Nagercoil-Thiruvananthapuram National Highway during his tenure from 2014 until 2019 in the Kanyakumari constituency.
The electoral battle is expected to be driven by religious politics instead of needs for improvements in infrastructural development, the tourism sector, and the competition of existing National Highway projects, which are the primary needs for the region.
With a significant population of Christians (around 46.85 percent), the Kanyakumari constituency is known for the polarisation between Hindus and Christians. Congress candidate and sitting MP Vijay Vasanth is the son of businessman H. Vasanthakumar of Vasanth & Co. Both are Hindus from the Nadar caste, who defeated BJP candidate Pon Radhakrishnan in 2019 and 2021, respectively.
On the other hand, AIADMK’s Nazareth Basilian and NTK’s Maria Jennifer are both individuals from the fisherman community. Both candidates are expected to take home a significant portion of the fishermen’s votes. In 2019, hundreds of fisherfolk protested, accusing the state and the central governments of deliberately removing their names from the electoral lists a few days before polling so that the BJP’s Pon. Radhakrishnan could win.
The former Union Minister of State for Shipping and Finance is no stranger to controversies. During the MeToo campaign in 2018, Mr. Radhakrishnan called it a movement started by “perverted minds” that corrupted “the purity of our land and the honour of women.” He also called Tamil people “ungrateful” for not celebrating PM Modi after he praised the Tamil language. During a BJP rally supporting the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2020, he remarked that Chrisitan priests should be chased away from the region, leading to police complaints filed accusing him of inciting communal violence.
Mr. Radhakrishnan comes from a family with a significant Hindutva history. Mr. Radhakrishnan’s brother Ramakrishnan served as the district chairman of the Hindu Nationalist Jana Sangh. His uncle Chidambaram Athiswami Nadar won the 1977 elections from the Colachal constituency on the Janata Party ticket. His father, Ponnaya Ayyappan, served as the District President of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). Mr. Radhakrishnan himself served as the secretary of the RSS and later joined its child organisation based in Tamil Nadu called Hindu Munnani.
The Kanyakumari Lok Sabha constituency comprises Vidhan Sabhas Nagercoil, Colachal, Padmanabhapuram, Vilavancode, and Killiyoor.