Kanyakumari : Once a Left citadel, now has no LDF candidate

Chennai : The Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu that shares its borders with Kerala was once a left citadel with the CPM having both MLAs and an MP from the district. However in the 2021 assembly elections, both Left parties, CPM and CPI have not one candidate as the DMK which is heading the 10 party Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) has not allocated a single seat to the Left.This is the first time in the history of Tamil Nadu elections that the left parties do not have a single seat to contest from in the Kanyakumari district.Party cadres are disappointed at not being able to bargain for even a single seat.The DMK leadership knows that the Left parties do not have any cadre base in the district except for a few dedicated old timers.CPM was a strong political party in areas bordering Kerala like Vilavancode, Old Thiruvattar and Padmanabhapuram, however, off late the party has gradually weakened and the cadre strength is almost zero.The Vilavankode seat was won by the CPM in 1977, 1980,1996 and 2001 and in 2006 but in 2016 when the CPM contested the seat alone without the support of any Dravidian parties, it was pushed to a distant third place.
The adjacent Kuzhithura municipality was ruled by the CPM for three terms and that too without the support of the Dravidian parties. Party leader Delphin had become Chairperson three times in a row from here .At the Padmanabhapuram constituency which is again in Kanyakumari district, CPM had won in 1980, 1984, 1999 and 2001 and J. Hemachandran, who had won the seat was once even the opposition leader in the Tamil Nadu assembly.CPM state committee member N.A. Noor Mohammed was Padmanabhapuram MLA, as well as the Chairman of the municipality and after Thiruvattur and Padmanabhapuram merged and became a single constituency, CPM was not able to win the seat or even prove its strength.In the Nagercoil Lok Sabha seat, CPM leader A.V. Bellarmin had defeated Pon Radhakrishnan of BJP. The seat is now named Kanyakumari instead of Nagercoil and the fight is between Radhakrishnan and Vijay Vasanth of Congress party.The CPM and CPI is also facing brickbats on having received an amount of Rs 25 crore in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the DMK which was declared by the latter in its affidavit before the Election Commission.Superstar-turned politician and President of Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), Kamal Haasan, had recently raked up this issue and the CPM and CPI had to defend this and the CPM Politburo member from Tamil Nadu, G. Ramakrishnan had come out against the actor. The CPM leader defended the donation stating that it was for the expenses indulged by the DMK cadres and leaders who were campaigning for the left candidates.