Kozhikode: The name of K Muraleedharan, Vattiyoorkavu MLA and chairman of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) campaign committee, as the candidate from Vadakara Parliament constituency was not suggested by the 'A' or 'I' group, but by the common party workers. From Saturday, only names of local leaders like Vidya Balakrishnan and Praveen Kumar were doing the rounds. Even KPCC president and sitting Vadakara MP Mullappally Ramachandran had no 'strong' candidate to suggest as his replacement.
It was the clamour of the grass-roots level workers to the senior leadership that made them reconsider the decision to field a weak candidate against CPM strongman and former Kannur district secretary P Jayarajan. The Congress workers in Vadakara believe that it is a do-or-die situation to retain the seat after Mullappally opted out.
The contest is a comeback for Muraleedharan (a three-time MP from Kozhikode) in Malabar after shifting to Vattiyoorkkavu assembly seat in 2011.
“The best decision to take on the candidate in Vadakara,” that was how UDF ally Indian Union Muslim League (IUML)'s state president Panakkad Hyderali Shihab Thangal termed the move to pick Muraleedharan.
Popular choice
The decision to field Muraleedharan has not only boosted the morale of the ordinary party workers in Congress alone, but also those in the IUML. Muraleedharan is hugely popular among the Muslim community for his strong statements against the RSS and BJP. The Muslim population has a strong presence in Vadakara and the political killings of Shuhaib and Shukkoor would make things difficult for Jayarajan during the campaign.
Revolutionary Marxist Party of India, which will support UDF, had also demanded for a better Congress candidate, when the local candidates' names propped up.
For an ordinary party worker, Muraleedharan is one of the most prominent Congress leaders in Kerala who has wide public appeal and extensive grass-roots level influence. It was during his tenure as KPCC president that the organisation moved to its own building as well as improved the quality of party mouthpiece - Veekshanam.
Muraleedharan suffered a setback when he lost the 2004 by-election, after taking up the role of power minister in A K Antony's Cabinet. He lost in Wadakkanchery to LDF's A C Moideen and resigned from the ministry.
The next year, he as well as some other members quit the party and formed the Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran) under the leadership of his father and former chief minister K Karunakaran. In the local body elections, it allied with the LDF. However, the alliance did not last long and the party joined the UDF in 2006. But DIC (K) performed poorly in the the Assembly elections and Muraleedharan lost to P T A Rahim in Koduvally.
Later, he as well as Karunakaran, joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Even after Karunakaran returned to the Congress, Muraleedharan stayed back with the NCP for some more time. In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, he came third in Wayanad behind the Congress and CPI. It was tough for Muraleedharan to return to the Congress, but he marked his re-entry to the Congress in style by winning the Vattiyoorkavu assembly seat by a huge margin in 2011.
Strong comeback
In his second coming to the party, Muraleedharan started from the grass-roots level and instilled confidence in the workers that he was one among them. With his strong political stance and public speaking, he won the confidence of the workers and grew as a leader of the mass. Political analysts are of the opinion that he would have been the strongest leader in the party, had he not left the Congress in 2004.
The 'A' and 'I' groups left for New Delhi with the lists of comparatively weaker candidates for Vadakara. None of them had Muraleedharan in its list. Even Mullappally did not have a strong replacement for himself. The protest from the party workers in Vadakara started after name of Kozhikode corporation councillor Vidya Balakrishnan's name surfaced. Many party workers threatened to quit and posters started appearing in Kuttiyadi and other parts of the constituency against Mullappally.
There was a huge campaign through the Shakti App also, against naming a weaker candidate, when the LDF was fielding one of their strongest candidates in the constituency. Though the party workers suggested only Mullappally initially, Muraleedharan and V M Sudheeran's names came up once the KPCC chief decided not to be in the fray.
