KB Ganesh Kumar, M Mukesh win assembly seats.
By Sreekanth A. Nair
The state of Kerala is known as the political laboratory of India. But, Kerala has not provided much space for film personalities to take part in politics so far, which is a common practice in adjacent states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh.
The people of Kerala refused to give their support to prominent actor Murali who had contested the state assembly elections. But that may be a thing of the past, as the elections results show that the state has started welcoming actors to politics, irrespective of their political identity.
Two prominent actors, KB Ganesh Kumar, and M Mukesh, have made their way to the Kerala state assembly in the elections held on May 16.
A former minister for Forests, Sports and Cinema, Ganesh Kumar was elected from Pathanapuram constituency of Kollam district, the seat he has been representing since 2001. Mukesh, who made his debut, won from Kollam constituency.
In the constituency that witnessed a triangular contest of actors, Ganesh Kumar was pitted against actors Jagadish of the Congress and Bhiman Raghu (Raghu Damodaran) of the BJP and won with a majority of 24562 votes. Jagadish bagged 49867 votes and Bhiman Raghu got 11700 votes.
Ganesh Kumar, who was a part of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UDF), broke his ties with them before the election and joined the Communist Party of India CMI (M) led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Kumar’s father and a prominent leader K Balakrishna Pillai had undergone a jail term in connection with a scam when the LDF was in power earlier.
The election campaigns in Pathanapuram had triggered a controversy when superstar Mohanlal went to address a convention of Ganesh Kumar. Considering the peculiar situation in the constituency, the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) had taken a decision that no actor should go to Pathanapuram for attending election campaigns.
Jagadish came down heavily on Mohanlal following his visit and broke into tears in front of media. He said that the presence of Mohanlal may affect the voting pattern as the actor is a crowd puller.
National award-winning actor Salim Kumar had resigned from AMMA citing that the act of Mohanlal was against the decision of the association.
But, denying the claims of Jagadish, Bhiman Raghu said that Ganesh Kumar wouldn’t win even if he brought Amitabh Bachchan for campaigning. However, the people of Pathanapuram stood with Kumar.
Though Ganesh Kumar is well known for his role as the minister of cinema and transport, where he brought about revolutionary changes, he was faced with several allegations including abusing his wife Yamini Thankachy who secured a divorce from him later on. He had to resign the post following the allegations.
Mukesh, who was known as an ardent supporter of the Communist Party of India (CPI), contested the election on CPI (M) ticket.
In the Lok-Sabha election of 2014, beating senior Congress leader PC Chacko, another actor, Innocent, had won from Chalakudy constituency.