In 2004, when the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) suffered its biggest-ever setback in a Lok Sabha election, with 19 of its 20 candidates biting the dust, E. Ahamed was the lone winner — from Ponnani. And, what a win it was!
Ahamed, the candidate of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the second largest party in the UDF, scored 48.5% of the popular votes. Granted, Ponnani (of those days) was a bastion of the IUML. But, Mr. Ahamed’s spectacular victory was a reflection of his non-controversial, amiable and mature personality and his popularity among all sections of voters.
After the election, he went on to become a Minister of State for External Affairs in the first Manmohan Singh government, and again, in the succeeding government too. He had a big role in bringing Muslim countries close to India and raising Indian interests at the U.N. Earlier, during Indira Gandhi’s time, he had been picked to liaison with the Gulf countries. Well-travelled and well-read, he had a flair for networking with leaders of other countries.
Fast-forward to the 2014 Lok Sabha election. Though Ahamed was the top-most national leader of the IUML, the public face of his party in Delhi and a high flier in India’s international relations, he had a tough time getting a party seat to contest. By the time, he had visibly aged and his scene of action had moved from Malabar, the party’s key sphere of influence, to Delhi. Also, by then he had been elected an MP half-a-dozen times in a row. The young generation in the IUML wanted Mr. Ahamed to be replaced with a new face, someone who is much younger. But, the old guard stood by him and fielded him in Malappuram. And what a win it was! With a margin of 1.94 lakh votes, Ahamed’s lead was the biggest among all the 20 constituencies in Kerala in 2014.
By the time he died, aged 78, on Wednesday morning, Ahamed’s relevance in the party had waned, his clout in Delhi had nosedived, and his party had lost its national moorings. After being a political activist for six decades, an MP for an unbroken 25 years and a member of the Kerala Assembly for 18 years, his death was in a sense `political’ too—the massive heart attack came while attending a Lok Sabha session.
He had started his political career as a leader of the Muslim Students Federation, the student wing of the IUML, and his first public office was that of the municipal chairman of Kannur. The late Mundol Abdulla, who had been a friend of Ahamed from their youth, used to reminisce how Seethi Saheb, a former Assembly Speaker, and C.H. Mohammed Koya, who had briefly been the Chief Minister of Kerala, politically mentored Ahamed. “Politics and football were in his blood,” Abdulla used to say.
Ahamed was close to Congress leader K. Karunakaran and had helped in cementing the IUML’s ties with the Congress and the UDF. A lawyer by training, his negotiating skills and personal affability had often helped in smoothening the contradictions within the coalition. And, within the IUML, his diplomatic approach kept the party stay focused on the middle path. In the turbulent weeks after the Babri Masjid demolition, Ahamed, along with Panakkad Mohammedali Shihab Thangal, the then party president, had strived hard to cool the tempers of the Muslim community in the region.
