In a clash of titans, Congress leader K Muraleedharan defeated CPM’s P Jayarajan by 84,633 votes to represent Vadakara in the Lok Sabha. While Muraleedharan polled 5,26,755 votes and Jayarajan 4,42,092, BJP’s V K Sajeevan finished third with 80,128.
The CPM’s hope to wrest Vadakara by fielding its strongman Jayarajan was dashed when the Congress unexpectedly deputed one of its senior MLAs from Vattiyoorkkavu to guard the northern constituency. Muraleedharan deftly stood in for Mullappalli Ramachandran, the sitting MP who refused to contest polls since he was assigned the role of the party chief in Kerala.
The BJP, on the other hand threw its weight behind state secretary Sajeevan, a resident of Vadakara.
Jayarajan was the first one to hit the campaign trail, hastily resigning as the CPM boss in Kannur district. The former MLA, however, lost his maiden run to the Lok Sabha. He has represented Koothuparamba three times in the Kerala legislative assembly.
Jayarajan, who was left for dead by assailants who barged into his house and hacked him in 1999, bounced back to active politics to lead the party in Kannur district for eight years until he stepped aside to contest the LS poll.
He had a formidable knowledge of the Vadakara parliamentary constituency. He had led the party campaign many a time, including the time when his sister P Sathi Devi was a candidate.
Jayarajan’s presence in the electoral arena intimidated many Congress leaders to take up the cudgel. Muraleedharan was not one of them. He has never shied away from a battle. He has represented the Kozhikode parliamentary constituency three times and lost three Lok Sabha elections. He also lost two assembly elections before he went on to win from Vattiyoorkkavu for two consecutive terms.
Muraleedharan owes his success to his diplomatic skills and the unequivocal positions he took. He emerged as a consensus candidate who rose over the factional politics of the Congress. He knew which chord to strike when he went to Vadakara, a place marred by politically motivated violence. He also fomented religious sentiments by opposing the state government’s decision to implement a Supreme Court order that struck down a ban on entry of young women in the popular Sabarimala shrine.
Congress workers in Vadakara gave him a rousing reception as they saw a motivated leader in him.
The BJP candidate also tried to chart a similar trajectory. Sajeevan was viewed as the BJP’s best bet in Vadakara. He has been with the party’s state committee for four years. He started out as an RSS functionary.
The Vadakara parliamentary constituency is spread over Koothuparamba and Thalasseri assembly segments in Kannur district and Vadakara, Koyilandi, Nadapuram, Kuttiadi and Perambra segments in Kozhikode district. The constituency was synonymous with K P Unnikrishnan for a long time. He won six times starting 1980 even as he switched from Congress to Congress (U) to Congress (S). In 1996, CPM's O Bharathan trounced Unnikrishnan. A K Premajam guarded the seat for the party in 1998 and 1999. P Sathi Devi won the seat by a margin of 1.30 lakh votes in 2004.
Congress's comeback vehicle was local man Mullappalli Ramachandran, who had lost to Unnikrishnan in 1980. When Mullappally returned to contest in 2009, the Congress wrested the seat by a margin of over 50,000 votes. He repeated the success in 2014 in a volatile situation created by the murder of estranged CPM leader T P Chandrasekharan.
The CPM had an advantageous position this time as it represented most of the assembly segments that constituted the parliamentary constituency and the local bodies within the seat.
Yet the Congress romped home on the back of the support of ally Muslim League and RMP, which was formed by Chandrasekharan. The UDF has consistently pointed a finger at the CPM for political violence in the area.
The CPM, however, sought to put the Congress in the dock by alleging that Mullappalli had done little for the development of the area for 10 years. Jayarajan’s commendable work in palliative care was also expected to give him a lift.
The BJP was counting on the Modi wave to lift its boat. All three major fronts raised their votes from 2014 but the Congress gains were enormous.
