Indian Union Muslim League ministers retained, Samadani, Khader out

MALAPPURAM: Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has announced a list of 20 party candidates for the next Assembly election here on Thursday. All the five ministers of party will contest election in their respective constituencies.

While the list has axed four sitting MLAs, including party’s national secretary Abdu Samad Samadani, K. N. A Khader, Muhammadunni Haji and C Moinkutty, three new faces found their way into the list. K. K. Abid Husain Thangal (Kottakkal), T. V. Ibrahim (Kondotty) and M. A. Razak (Koduvalli) are the first timers in the fray.
The list was declared by state president Sayed Hyderali Shihab Thangal after a high-level meeting held in Panakkad, Malappuram on Thursday.

Candidates for the remaining four seats, where the party had lost in the last Assembly elections, will be declared after further discussions with the UDF allies, said industry minister P. K. Kunhalikutty. He said that more young faces might be included in the next list.

The party is also considering swapping of some of the remaining seats with other constituents of the UDF. The party has discussed this within the front and the UDF would take a final call on this, said party general secretary K. P. A Majeed.
Kuttyadi, Kunnamangalam, Guruvayur and  Iravipuram are the remaining party seats where the candidates are yet to be finalised.

The two prominent sitting MLAs, K. N. A. Khader and C. Moinkutty, who found their way out have been made general secretaries of Malappuram and Kozhikode districts, respectively. Current general secretaries of these districts, P. Abdul Hameed (Vallikkunnu) and M. A. Razak (Koduvally) have been included in the poll list.