Koyilandi MLA Kanathil Jameela passes away at 59

Koyilandi MLA Kanathil Jameela passed away on Saturday at a private hospital in Kozhikode. She was 59. Jameela had been undergoing treatment for cancer for the past nine months at hospitals in Chennai and Kozhikode, and she breathed her last around 8.40 pm while in the intensive care unit.

The funeral will be held at 6 pm on Tuesday at the Juma Masjid in Kuniyil, Atholi. The body will be kept at Meitra Hospital in Kozhikode until Tuesday morning. From there, the body will be taken to the CPM district committee office, C H Kanaran Memorial Hall, for public homage, and later to Koyilandi Town Hall. Public viewing will continue in the afternoon at Thalakkulathur, after which the body will be taken to her residence.

A native of Kuttiyadi in Kozhikode, Kanathil Jameela was born on May 5, 1966, to T K Ali and T K Mariyam. She became a CPM member in 1997.

Jameela entered electoral politics in 1995, the year the three-tier panchayat system was introduced, and won from Thalakkulathur, and also served as panchayat president. She was heading the Democratic Women’s Association area committee at that time. She also served as the state vice president of the Democratic Women’s Association and the president of the Chelannur block panchayat from 2005 to 2010.

Jameela led the Kozhikode district panchayat for two terms—2010–2015 and 2019–2021—and became a member of the CPM district committee in 2017.

In 2021, Jameela was elected to the Kerala Assembly from Koyilandy, securing a majority of 8,472 votes. She won 75,628 of the total 1,61,592 votes polled, defeating Congress candidate N Subramanian, who received 67,156 votes. BJP’s N P Radhakrishnan secured 17,555 votes. She resigned from the post of district panchayat president after being elected to the Assembly.

Jameela is survived by her husband Abdul Rahman and children Ireej Rahman and Anooja Sohaib.