Congress has its work cut out in Malabar

Untimely demise of M.I. Shanavas puts party in a fix

Now that the Malabar zonal workshop for mandalam presidents is over, the Congress leadership is looking for winning candidates for the five Lok Sabha seats in the region.

All the five seats—Kasaragod, Kannur, Vadakara, Wayanad, and Kozhikode—are usually contested by the Congress, and the pattern may be followed in the 2019 general elections as well. Since the party had won Vadakara, Wayanad, and Kozhikode by margins of around 20,000 votes last time, it does not expect a cakewalk in the three seats in the coming elections.

Moreover, it is an arduous task to recapture Kasaragod and Kannur from the CPI(M) though the margin of defeat was fewer than 10,000 votes last time.

Senior party leaders say the biggest hurdle before them is choosing nominees. In Kozhikode, sitting MP M.K. Raghavan seems to be keen on contesting for the third time in a row. Mullappally Ramachandran and K. Sudhakaran who got party tickets for Vadakara and Kannur last time are now KPCC president and working president respectively. So, the question of the three contesting again depends on the criteria the party fixes. Party sources say the untimely demise of senior leader M.I. Shanavas, who had won twice from Wayanad, has put the leadership in a quandary.

Mr. Shanavas had won the seat by a margin of 20,870 votes in the 2014 elections. Had not Independent candidate P.V. Anvar secured over 37,000 votes, his margin would have been higher.

Last time, Kozhikode DCC president T. Siddique had unsuccessfully contested for the Kasaragod seat. Since the Kannada community has a sizeable presence in Manjeswaram and Kasaragod, chances of the party fielding a person who has appeal among the community cannot be ruled out, as in the past. Incidentally, Mr. Siddique is an aspirant for the Wayanad seat.

Kannur DCC president Satheeshan Pacheni is a contester for the Kannur seat in case Mr. Sudhakaran opts out of the race. However, the leadership will have a tough task choosing a candidate for the Vadakara seat, especially with the Janata Dal (United) faction, now Loktantrik Janata Dal, aligning with the LDF.