KOZHIKODE: Kozhikode offers a unique challenge for both the fronts and the parties which led them: the Congress wants to reopen its account in the district where it drew a blank last time and for the CPM, to reenact the spectacular show it staged in 2011.
The Congress is also looking for a face-saver as it had won both the Lok Sabha seats from the district in 2014 despite losing all the Assembly constituencies it contested.
The Left Democratic Front (LDF) considers Kozhikode to be its bastion—it won 10 of the 13 seats in 2011 —but it finds fixing candidates for key constituencies a headache this time around. The confusion has been visible in Beypore where the names of two candidates spring up -- sitting MLA and former minister Elamaram Kareem and DYFI leader M Mehaboob – before it zeroed in on Kozhikode corporation mayor V.K.C. Mammad Koya.
Though Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) had announced its candidates well ahead of the others, the slots in Kuttiady and Kunnamangalam have been kept vacant, waiting for the discussions with the Congress and other allies to be over.
The idea of exchanging Kuttiady and Nadapuram constituencies with the IUML lies almost dumped and the only chance of an exchange remains for Balussery and Kunnamangalam. Thiruvambadi also has put IUML in trouble as Koduvally MLA V.M.Ummer was fielded as UDF candidate where the Church-backed Malayora Vikasana Samithi has been campaigning for a Congress candidate.
To cash in on the situation, LDF has decided to field CPM leader and former MLA George M Thomas in the fray after communications with the Church.
The Revolutionary Marxist Party founded by the slain leader T P Chandrasekharan is understood to have decided on fielding his wife K K Rema in Vadakara.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is considering Kozhikode North as one of its strong bases. North and Kunnamangalam are the two constituencies where they have a stronger presence. In the local body polls, they could garner nearly 23,000 votes in the constituency and with state vice-president K P Sreesan, the party is trying to give the opponents a tight fight. The role of smaller parties such as the SDPI and the AAP are likely to be only marginal.
