E. Ahamed, who passed away in New Delhi on Wednesday, had an unbroken run as a Member of Parliament ever since he made his debut to the Lok Sabha on June 20, 1991. And his support base never waned. In May 2014, he won his seventh Lok Sabha election with a thumping majority of about 1.94 lakh votes, winning Malappuram for a second term. More than half of those who cast their votes had chosen Ahamed. No one has questioned his claim to the seat after that.
Ahamed and Ibrahim Sulaiman Sait are the only MPs from Kerala to complete 25 years as an MP.
Read: Former Union minister and IUML leader E Ahamed passes away
Ahamed was born into a merchant family in Kannur on April 29, 1938. The second son of Ovintakath Abdul Khader Hajee and Edappakath Nafeeza Beevi carried his mother’s house name because they practiced the matrilineal system.
He was to carry on with the legacy of his ancestor Khan Bahadur Mammikkutty Hajee, who had served as the municipal chairman of Kannur. Ahamed was brought to the center of attraction as the first general secretary of Muslim League’s student association, Muslim Students’ Federation. He worked as a reporter for the party mouthpiece Chandrika and later rose to the rank of executive director.
Ahamed went to Brennan College in Thalassery and the Government Law College in Thiruvananthapuram. He practiced law in the district court in Thalassery and the Kerala High Court in Kochi.
The Muslim League chose him to be its candidate in Kannur in the 1967 assembly election, mainly in recognition of his contributions to build the MSF from scratch as a law student in Thiruvananthapuram.
He made his debut in the Kerala Legislative Assembly when he was elected from Kannur. He was later elected from Koduvally in 1977 and Thanoor in 1980, 1982 and 1987. He was chosen to be the industries minister in 1982.
He was the founder-chairman of the State Rural Development Board which was formed in 1971. He also served as the executive chairman of the Kerala Small-Scale Industries Development Corporation. He was elected the Kannur municipal chairman during 1981-83.
Ahamed was elected to the Lok Sabha from Manjeri for four consecutive terms starting 1991. In 2004, he shifted to Ponnani and held fort when the United Democratic Front faced a humiliating rout in Kerala. After the constituency delimitation, he chose to contest from Malappuram, from where he was elected in 2009 and 2014.
He was appointed a minister of state for external affairs in the first UPA government. In 2009, he served as a minister of state for railways, external affairs and human resources.
He had represented India in the United Nations multiple times between 1991 and 2014.
Ahamed could lambast Pakistan for its incursions in Kashmir as India’s delegate to the United Nations General Assembly and highlight the miseries of Kashmiris while speaking in the Lok Sabha.
The leader in him was on display when he flew to Gujarat during the carnage of 2002 and called up chief minister Narendra Modi to vent his ire. He wailed like a child when party leader Panakkad Shihab Thangal passed away.
Ahamed, the longest-serving Union minister from Kerala, was a key figure in India’s diplomatic relations.
India witnessed Ahamed’s diplomatic prowess when a group of Indians were held hostage in Iraq in 2004. He also tried to lessen the impact of stricter employment norms in the Gulf countries that threatened to render hundreds of Indians jobless.
He enjoyed cordial ties with the rulers of most West Asian countries. He was one of the few world leaders to be invited to the ritualistic washing of the Kaaba in Mecca during the Haj pilgrimage. He played an important role in facilitating the annual pilgrimage from India.
