A race heading for photo finish at Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency

VADAKARA: Everything finally boils down to politics in Vadakara

Lok Sabha

constituency that is spread over

Kozhikode

and Kannur. And quite expectedly this time too all discussions are centred on the ‘politics of violence’, pushing all other topics to the backburner.


By fielding its Kannur district secretary and party strongman P Jayarajan, CPM wanted to send a strong signal that the party wanted to win back the constituency at any cost. Vadakara had always favoured LDF candidates since 1980, but the political situation after dissident activities erupted in Onchiyam in 2008 proved costly for the party. Congress leader

Mullappally Ramachandran

won the seat in 2009 and 2014, though the margin was a little over 3,000 votes the second time. CPM believes that its candidate A N Shamseer failed to fully garner party votes in 2014. So, it zeroed in on Jayarajan whose presence could galvanize the entire party machinery into action.

There were rumours that Jayarajan was made a candidate as part of the ploy to eject him from Kannur, where he enjoys clout. The party bigwigs in Kannur have expressed their displeasure over Jayarajan attaining a larger-than-life image.

UDF had won the seat riding on the strong sentiments against CPM fuelled by the dissidents who later formed the Revolutionary

Marxist Party

(RMP). But, CPM believes that RMP has become a spent force and the party’s open support to UDF will tarnish its credibility.

RMP sees the candidature of Jayarajan as an open challenge and reacted in a befitting manner. Party candidate P Kumarankutty had fetched over 17,000 votes in 2014 election, but this time, RMP decided to offer unconditional support to UDF even before the candidate was fixed. RMP launched a campaign against Jayarajan on its own focusing mainly on the politics of violence.

The delay in deciding the candidate had created a lot confusion in UDF camp. UDF workers in Vadakara were crestfallen after it was rumoured that Congress was contemplating on fielding little-known candidates. There were open protests in some parts of the constituency.

The UDF camp heaved a sigh of relief when it was known that senior leader K Muraleedharan was chosen to take on Jayarajan. The upbeat mood among UDF workers was visible at the reception accorded to the candidate when he first landed in Vadakara.

In his first reaction itself Muraleedharan made it clear that the fight was between

democracy

and the culture of violence. He is heavily banking on the votes of Muslim community. Muraleedharan has the full backing of IUML which has an axe to grind with Jayarajan, who is an accused in the murder of Youth League worker Ariyil Shukkur.

The performance of BJP, which increased its votes from roughly 40,000 to over 76,000 in 2014, will be an important factor that will decide the poll outcome. CPM has already cried foul saying that there is an unholy alliance between Congress, IUML and BJP to defeat Jayarajan, who is also a rival of the

Sangh Parivar

in Kannur.

The Sangh Parivar leadership maintains that there is no question of their votes going to Muraleedharan though they want to see Jayarajan’s defeat. With AICC president Rahul Gandhi contesting in the neighbouring Wayanad, it will be tough to the BJP to divert its votes to UDF.

On his part, Jayarajan is portraying himself as ‘more sinned against than sinning.’ A victim of political violence, the CPM leader is pressing hard to convince voters that he is not what is being projected by his political opponents.