For many in Kerala, any recollection of the difficult times during the Nipah virus and Covid-19 outbreaks would bring to mind one name -- KK Shailaja aka Shailaja teacher.
The CPI (M) veteran got good press from the foreign media and was decked with awards for the way she handled the crises as a health minister.
Her sidelining by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan later during his second term was seen by many as a classic example of Machiavellian politics.
However, the CPI (M) has now chosen to send her to the Lok Sabha given her experience in having represented Kuthuparamba in 1996 and Peravoor in 2006 in the state assembly.
But standing between her and victory in the Vatakara parliamentary constituency is the young and fiery Shafi Parambil of the Congress.
Parambil represents Palakkad in the Kerala legislative assembly. He figured in the first list of candidates recently released by the Congress. The sitting Vatakara MP K Muraleedharan has been shifted to Thrissur LS seat.
The Vatakara Lok Sabha constituency in northern Kerala comprises the assembly segments of Thalassery, Kuthuparamba, Vatakara, Kuttiadi, Nadapuram, Koyilandy and Perambra.
On paper, at least, Vatakara appears a safe constituency for Shailaja.
Five assembly segments out of the seven here were pocketed by the CPI (M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the 2021 assembly polls when Vatakara and Kuthuparamba went with the opposition UDF.
Vatakara is synonymous with the name of the slain leader TP Chandrasekharan (1994-2012). His wife KK Rema presently represents the Vatakara constituency in the state assembly. Chandrasekharan was brutally murdered by CPI (M) goons after the former rebelled against the party leadership and floated a new outfit, namely the Revolutionary Marxist Parry of India (RMP).
Shafi Parambil, in a feet-on-the ground approach, has unsurprisingly launched his campaign by visiting Rema at her house in Onchiyam on Monday (March 11, 2024).
It's a clear signal that he is likely to turn the political murder into a poll issue.
As electioneering kicks up further heat and dust in the coming days, Vatakara promises a keen tussle between the veteran Shailaja "teacher" and the young and promising Shafi Parambil.
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