Old guard faces young blood in Kozhikode North

Kozhikode: The urban constituency that now goes by the name of Kozhikode North has aligned with the Left Democratic Front ever since young CPM leader A Pradeep Kumar wrested the seat from Congress minister A Sujanapal 15 years ago.

Pradeep Kumar was a firebrand leader and the face of agitations as the state secretary of the DYFI. After serving three terms as an MLA, Pradeep Kumar has stepped aside to comply with a party norm to limit a member’s parliamentary terms to two. The CPM has fielded former mayor Thottathil Ravindran instead.

From the United Democratic Front camp, however, comes a candidate who calls to mind the credentials of Pradeep Kumar in 2016. K M Abhijith, KSU state president and former chairman of the Calicut University students’ union chairman, is as much a product of student politics as Pradeep Kumar was.

The youngest Congress candidate is faced with the longest-serving mayor of the city. Ravindran was chosen as the LDF candidate after a round of drama triggered by the moves to field movie director Renjith as a successor to Pradeep Kumar. Renjith said he was ready to take up the challenge but later backtracked after three state committee members from the district opposed the move.

Kozhikode North is the most hopeful of constituencies for the BJP in the district. Party state general secretary M T Ramesh is the candidate. The choice of a state-level leader underlines the party’s stakes in the constituency.

Ravindran was picked as the candidate by the state committee. Congress took its time in announcing the name of Abhijith, but the young leader had already started the groundwork.

The LDF pins its hopes on the track record of Ravindran, who had served as a corporation councillor for 26 years and mayor for more than nine years. The voting patterns in the previous assembly elections and the local body elections also give a boost to the LDF morale in Kozhikode.

The good work left behind by Pradeep Kumar is the real trump card though. The development works initiated by the sitting MLA, including the ‘PRISM’ scheme that elevated government schools to international standards, adds sheen to the LDF government’s progress report.

Abhijith is confident of an upset in the constituency. The KSU leader was elected to the university students' union from the Government Arts & Science College Kozhikode at Meenchanda, which was considered to be a red bastion in student politics. He won for a second term in 2014 and went on to become the chairman of the university students’ union.

Abhijith is a familiar face in the district, especially after his bloodied face was splashed across newspapers after a police crackdown on student protest. He faces 29 police cases related to agitation and protests. He took on the LDF government by going on a hunger strike for nine days demanding an investigation into the controversies related to the Kerala Public Service Commission recruitment.

Though on the backfoot when it comes to assembly and local body polls, the UDF has consistently improved its own record in the last Lok Sabha elections in areas corresponding to the Kozhikode North assembly segment.

The BJP likes to flaunt the votes it received in the same area in the just-concluded local body elections. The party won five of the 33 corporation wards that correspond to the assembly segment. It finished as runner-up in 12 wards. The BJP candidates won about 30,000 votes among themselves.

The BJP even won in the home ward of Ravindran, the CPM candidate. Ravindran had made a sensational claim that BJP state president K Surendran invited him to cross over to the party.

Kozhikode North is the face of the developing city. This election will determine the prospect of the leader who is going to be associated with that development.

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