KOZHIKODE: Though Kannur is known as the CPM citadel, Kannur city has a history of backing the Congress and the UDF. A Communist candidate had won from here on the party symbol only in 1957. However, in the 2015 civic polls, the LDF made a comeback, grabbing the corporation with the help of a Congress rebel.
The LDF had a lead of 1,171 votes in the civic polls from the Kannur corporation and the four grama panchayats which together constitute the Kannur Assembly constituency. The CPM and the LDF are hoping that this trend can be repeated in the Assembly elections too.
In the last Assembly elections, Congress candidate A.P Abdulla Kutty beat Congress (S) president Kadannappally Ramchandran by 6,443 votes. Though this time, the LDF is fielding Kadannappally again, the KPCC has not yet decided on the UDF candidate. If the KPCC sticks with the sitting MLA, Mr Abdulla Kutty will contest for the third time from Kannur.
However, the vote banks of Congress in Kannur city are not as reliable as before. The rebel Congress man K.K Ragesh has considerable strength in the city. It is said that Mr Ragesh may contest from Kannur if the Congress leadership does not comply with his demands. Also, Congress leader K. Sudhakaran, who earlier represented Kannur thrice in the Assembly before being elected as MP, wanted to contest from here. It is learnt that Mr Abdulla Kutty, who was a confidant of Mr Sudhakaran once, is not ready to give up the seat.
The BJP has also bettered its performance in Kannur. In the last Assembly election, it got only 4,568 votes, but in the civic polls it grabbed more than 10,000 votes. SDPI also has strong influence among the Muslim voters in the city limit.
