When parties bank on serving and former MPs

Some serving and ex-Member of Parliament (MPs) are contesting this time in the Assembly elections from outside, indicating that political parties are repeatedly cashing in on their perceived popularity.

The most talked about of all, K. Muralitharan, Vadkara MP who has been elected by the Congress to contest from the Nemom seat in Thiruvananthapuram, now in the possession of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Mr. Muralitharan had won both in 2011 and 2016 from the nearby Vattiyurakavu section. However, his party in 2019 CPI-M candidate P.K. Elected to oust him from the Vadkara Lok Sabha seat to give a tough fight to Jayarajan. Mr. Muralitharan won with a stunning margin. Again, he is going to the capital city to reclaim the BJP’s lone assembly seat in the state.

MV Shreyams Kumar (Kalpetta) of Loktantrik Janata Dal and Suresh Gopi (Thrissur) of BJP and KJ Alphons (Kanjirapalli) are members of Rajya Sabha who are contesting assembly elections. Mr. Shreyans Kumar was a two-time MLA from Kalpetta. Mr. Alphonse once represented Kanjirapalli as an LDF independent.

There are some other MPs who recently renounced their posts to get back into state politics. PK Kunhalikutty of the Indian Union Muslim League represented the Malappuram Lok Sabha seat from 2017. He then resigned as the Vengara MLA to contest the by-election and was re-elected in 2019.

Less than two years later, he quit his post and is now contesting from Vengara again. Jose K. Mani, who was elected as a Rajya Sabha MP in 2018, recently resigned to contest from the Pala assembly seat.

This time some former MPs are also in the fray. Chief among them is CP Raja’s MB Rajesh, who was a two-time Palakkad MP but lost by a narrow margin in 2019. Shri Rajesh was fielded against Kumbhakarmi MLA VT Balaram from the Tharathala seat in Palakkad.

Other veteran Congress leader N.N. Pitambara is Kurup, who once represented Kollam in the Lok Sabha, and KS Manoj, who once won as the Left Independent candidate from Alappuzha. Mr. Kurup is now contesting from Chaitnoor. After establishing his loyalty in the Congress, Drs. Manoj is contesting in Alappuzha.

MLA too

The state also saw MLAs parading in the Lok Sabha elections. K. Sudhakaran (Kannur), Sri Muralitharan (Wadkar), Hibi Eden (Ernakulam), and Adoor Prakash (Attingal) were Congress MLAs who tried their luck in 2019 and won. Left Democratic Front MLA A. Pradeep Kumar (Kozhikode), PV Anwar (Ponnani), AM Arif (Alappuzha), Chittam Gopakumar (Mavlikara), Veena George (Pathanakotta), & c. Divakaran (Thiruvananthapuram) also contested, but only Mr. Arif won.