Battle lines drawn in Kozhikode

With the Congress and the National Democratic Alliance announcing their candidates for the upcoming assembly elections, battle lines have been drawn in Kozhikode district, where some high-profile electoral fights are expected this time. The only thing which is the CPI (M) declaration of the candidate of Kutiyadi.

The Congress is fighting from five seats here. The candidates included Kerala Students Union President KM Abhijeet (Kozhikode North), actor Dharmajan Bolghetti (Balusri), Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) secretary K. Praveen Kumar (Nadapuram), and KPCC general secretaries PM Nias and N Subrahmanyan are from Beypore. Koilandi, respectively.

BJP will field candidates from 13 seats. They are party state general secretary MT Ramesh (Kozhikode North), party district president VK Sajivan (Kunnamangalam), former party district president TP Jayachandran (Elathur), former Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha state president KP Prakash Babu (Beypore), Kozhikode Corporation councilor Navya Haridas (Kozhikode South), m. Rajesh Kumar (Wadakara), PP Murali (Kutiyadi), Libin Bhaskar (Balusri), MP Radhakrishnan, (Koyalandi), KV Sudhir (Perambra), T. Balasomon (Koduvali), MP Rajan (Nadapuram)), and Baby Ambate (Thiruvambadi).

A three-cornered contest takes place in Kozhikode North, Kozhikode South, Beypore and Kunnamangala seats. Kozhikode North to East Kozhikode Mayor Thottathil Ravendran is a candidate for the Left Democratic Front (LDF), where urban voters have the upper hand. a. Pradeep Kumar of CPI (M) had been representing the seat since 2006. The LDF is based on the development work done by Mr. Kumar and the popularity of two-time Mayor Mr. Ravindran. With Mr. Ramesh, a moderate face of the BJP, and a well-known youth leader, Mr. Abhijeet, coming here, the election fight will be interesting.

In Kozhikode South, the two leading candidates are women, Nurbina Rashid of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and Ms. Haridas. The LDF candidate is Ahmed Dewarkovil of the Indian National League.

The Beypore seat becomes important due to the presence of PA Mohammad Rias, the national president of the Democratic Youth Federation of India. Mr. Nias and Mr. Babu are also contesting from there, this fight is likely to be three-part. In Kunnamangalam, the United Democratic Front (UDF) has fielded Congress leader Dinesh Perumanna as an independent candidate of the Indian Union Muslim League. The LDF candidate is MLA, PTA Rahim. Another interesting competition is going to take place in Balusri, where Mr. Dharmajan is working with KM Sachidev, Secretary of State for Students Federation of India.

As the CPI-M and its allies had earlier announced their candidates, they had already started their campaign. By Saturday, with candidates signaling to the Congress about possible candidates, their candidates also started campaigning.