Voters in the Kannur Lok Sabha constituency experience a sense of deja vu when CPM's sitting MP P K Sreemathy is challenged by Congress leader K Sudhakaran. Yet the constituency is heading for a cliffhanger of a climax.
Kannur is slippery ground for all parties. Though viewed as a formidable fortress of the CPM, Kannur has fallen to the Congress-led United Democratic Front on equal measures. Even in 2014, when P K Sreemathy wrested the seat from Sudhakaran by a margin of 6,566 votes, more people had voted NOTA (none of the above). As many votes were cast against two other 'Sudhakarans' on the list.
Kannur started its tryst with democracy in style. Its representative, CPI leader A K Gopalan, went on to become the unofficial leader of the opposition in the first Lok Sabha. For 20 years starting 1957, the areas in the present constituency were known as Thalassery, more or less.
In 1977, another round of delimitation brought back the Kannur constituency. That year C K Chandrappan of the CPI, which had become an ally of the Congress, beat O Bharathan of the CPM, the newer communist party.
The CPM won the seat back in 1980 thanks to the division in the Congress. However, the Congress won the seat through Mullappally Ramachandran in 1984 and held on to it until 1999, when the CPM launched a fresh face, A P Abdullakutty, and toppled Mullappally.
Abdullakutty won for a second time in 2004. In 2009, Abdullakutty jolted his comrades by switching his loyalty to the Congress and K Sudhakaran was elected to the Lok Sabha. He lost to Sreemathy in 2014.
Sreemathy expects to repeat the winning performance, while Sudhakaran is striving hard to get even. The BJP is pinning its hopes on C K Padmanabhan, its former state president and national committee member.
The CPM-led Left Democratic Front has reasons to be confident. The alliance won the assembly segments of Kannur, Taliparamba, Dharmadom and Mattannur in the 2016 election. The UDF, however, insists that the front lost Kannur by a whisker. They still count the urban constituency as their stronghold.
The CPM cannot afford to lose Kannur, the home constituency of both Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and party state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. That explains the party’s unwillingness to test out anyone but the sitting MP. The party hastily appointed a full-time chief for the district unit as soon as P Jayarajan was picked as a candidate for the neighbouring Vadakara.
In fact, Sreemathy started her campaign even before the election dates were notified. She can boast of a vast network of contacts in the constituency thanks to her work as a state minister and a Member of Parliament. She thinks her works to develop the Kannur railway station will be rewarded by the people.
Sudhakaran, however, is no ordinary opponent. He has consolidated his position in the Congress as a working president of the KPCC. He has also tapped into a section of society as a vocal opponent of the Supreme Court order allowing women of all age to go to the Sabarimala shrine.
The UDF considers him as the apt candidate to draw the support of the majority Hindu community as well as the minority Muslims. The Muslim League has always stood by his candidature.
The BJP expects to double the votes it received in 2014. The party won 51,636 votes in 2014, its largest tally in the constituency where the CPM and the Congress is locked in a direct fight. The party’s game plan of inciting sentiments in the name of the Sabarimala agitation has lost its edge in Kannur, since few leaders like Sudhakaran had opposed the state government’s plan to implement the Sabarimala order.
If Sudhakaran was forced to explain his work for the constituency after a five-year term in 2014, it is Sreemathy’s turn to face the questions. She has said that she was able to usher in development worth Rs 2103 crore, a claim rebutted by the UDF as overblown as it includes the several state government projects and some central projects initiated by Sudhakaran.
The LDF tries to hit a soft spot by spreading the work that Sudhakaran was an apt candidate to switch to the BJP. The Congress leader has emotionally struck back by saying that he would remain a party man unto death. The Congress also tries to put the CPM in the dock over the Periya twin murders as well as the Shuhaib murder and Shukkoor murder cases.
The CPM also faces strong headwinds in a slew of local protests by environmentalists and farmers against proposed road works and big-ticket projects such as a mangrove park in Pappinisseri. The SUCI has also put up a candidate to highlight environmental politics.
A decisive participants in the fray is the SDPI, which garnered 19,170 votes last time.
Candidatespeak
P K Sreemathy: “I seek votes for a continuity of the development work I initiated in Kannur. I was able to bring in a lot of central projects like never before. The state government’s development works will also be reflected in the poll.”
K Sudhakaran: “Voters will react to the stands taken by the Congress and the BJP in regard to the protection of faith. There will be a people’s verdict against the CPM’s murder politics. The LDF candidate has no clear answer to the question on what kind of development she was able to bring about as an MP.”
C K Padmanabhan: “All constituencies in the country face a fight between the NDA and those opposed to the NDA. Narendra Modi government’s development works will be reflected in the poll. The Kannur MP has just claimed the central government projects as her own.”
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