In December 2020, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) unit in Veliyancode gram panchayat in Ponnani in Malappuram district faced an unprecedented crisis over the candidates' selection for the local body election.
The bone of contention was the Communist party’s decision to field an ‘outsider’ in its stronghold of Gramam (Ward No. 13), ignoring eligible candidates from the constituency. The growing discontent notwithstanding, the CPM decided not to withdraw its candidate P Hussain. Those raised the banner of revolt fielded former party worker Muneer, who had just returned from the Gulf. CPM’s top leaders intervened to sort out the crisis. Party’s district secretariat member T M Siddique made a vain attempt to persuade his long-time associate Muneer to withdraw from the poll fray. A fierce contest followed. CPM used all its might to retain the seat. In the end, Hussain scraped through by just 36 votes in the seat where CPM used to win by over 400-vote margin.
Three months later, in March 2021, the mediator Siddique found himself in a similar situation over the CPM’s candidate selection for Ponnani seat for the Assembly election scheduled for April 6.
Siddique was tipped to be the CPM candidate in Ponnani because of his popularity. But the party chose 71-year-old trade union leader P Nandakumar. This invited the wrath of party cadres and sympathisers. They organised impromptu marches in several parts of the constituency, urging the leadership to reconsider its decision.
The party, however, ignored the voices of dissent and threw its weight behind Nandakumar.
Siddique did not turn a renegade. Instead, he remained a loyal party worker and urged protesters to abide by the leadership’s decision, which eventually brought the situation under control.
The party now claims that all issues have been sorted out and the protests were an emotional reaction by a few cadres and sympathisers.
Root cause
Though the selection crisis appears to have been resolved, rumblings of discontent could be heard from the ground – especially in the coastal belt of Ponnani municipality and Veliyancode and Perumpadappu panchayats – and this could affect the chance of CPM candidate Nandakumar.
The coastal belt had been a hotbed of political violence involving CPM and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) workers for more than a decade starting from 1995. The violent clashes claimed several lives from both the sides. Many seriously injured people are still languishing in their homes.
Siddique was emerging as a CPM leader at that time.
He joined the party in 1989. Two years later, in 1991, he became the branch secretary. In the same year, he defeated IUML candidate by 225 votes to become a gram panchayat member. In 1996, he was elevated as CPM’s Veliyancode local committee secretary. For a decade from 2002 to 2012 he served as the Ponnani area committee secretary. Currently, he is serving as party’s Malappuram district secretariat member.
CPM’s cadre and mass base grew in Ponnani because of Siddique’s leadership skills even as the cycle of violence continued on the Ponnani coast.
His selfless work has made him a popular figure among people, cutting across party lines, and a top contender to get party nomination for the Ponnani Assembly seat this time.
Ponnani did not see any protests when he was denied ticket in 2006, 2011 and 2016 Assembly elections despite being a top contender. But 2021 turned out to be entirely different. Seat denial angered thousands of people and they took to the streets voluntarily.
CPM’s senior leader from Malappuram and speaker in the outgoing Assembly P Sreeramakrishnan, however, did not take the protests seriously and termed them ‘irrelevant’.
“The party selected the candidate through a democratic process. The decision could not be changed because of a few protests,” he said.
He said protesters have realised their mistake and are campaigning for Nandakumar now. “This means that they are upholding the party decision,” he said.
Siddique too denounced the protests. “The protests were totally uncalled for. Party is above individuals and workers should abide by the party’s decision,” he said.
He said he would never question the party. “I would carry out all the responsibilities given to me,” he said.
‘We want Siddique as our MLA’
Pathumuri is the fisher village in Veliyancode gram panchayat. Many people this correspondent spoke to are worried about depleting fish wealth as well as Siddique’s seat denial.
On Wednesday (March 10), a few people closed down the CPM’s branch committee office in protest against the treatment meted out to Siddique.
The branch committee office is in the same rented building that houses CPM’s expatriate wing, Pravasikkoottam.
“Siddique would have served us well. Why does CPM continue to deny him the seat?” asked fisherperson Muhammed. “He did a lot of things to us. We need to get his services,” he said.
Fisherperson Hameed used to earn Rs 2,500-a-day a few years ago. “But the depleting fish wealth hit me hard. I do not earn even Rs 1,000 now. It is tough to make a living now,” he said.
Suleiman seethes in anger when he talks about the day’s catch. “It was a bad day for me. Trawlers are taking away our fish wealth. We should check this,” he said.
Both are CPM sympathisers, but they have decided not to vote this time in protest. “We do not want to vote for any person other than Siddique. Many people in this village think on the same lines,” they said.
Who is Nandakumar?
Nandakaumar is the national secretary of the CITU, the trade union wing of the CPM, and a member of the party’s state committee.
This is the first electoral battle for Nandakumar, who joined the Communist Party in 1965. He was jailed during the Emergency along with Pinarayi Vijayan and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.
Many CPM sympathisers felt that Nandakumar got the seat because incumbent MLA Sreeramakrishnan lobbied for him. “Such allegations are baseless. Nandakumar is a senior party leader. He became a party member a day before I was born. He doesn’t need my lobbying to get the ticket” he said.
He rubbished allegations that communal forces organised the protests. “The protests were organised by party sympathisers. It was not organised on communal lines,” he said.
Ponnani’s election history
Ponnani constituency consists of Ponnani municipality, and Veliyancode, Perumpadappu, Maranchery, Alamkode and Nannamukku gram panchayats.
In the last 10 elections between 1977 and 2016, CPM won six times while Congress won four times.
Senior CPM leader Paloli Muhammed Kutty represented the constituency in 2006, followed by Sreeramakrishnan in 2011 and 2016.
Sreeramakrishnan’s first victory was by a margin of 4,011 votes. He increased his margin to 15,640 in 2016.
But CPM has some cause for concern this time, going by the Lok Sabha election results of 2019. IUML leader ET Muhammed Basheer had secured a lead of 9,739 votes over CPM-backed independent and businessman P V Anwar in Ponnai. Basheer had won by a whopping 1,93,273 votes.
But Sreeramakrishnan is not worried. “CPM is not facing a major threat here. Nandakumar will win by a bigger margin than in 2016,” he said.
Siddique echoed him. “All those who participated in the protests will work for Nandakumar. It is the duty of all party workers and sympathisers to ensure his victory,” he said.
