KANNUR: As the state’s four northern districts go to the polls on Monday, the CPM is facing a tough fight, not just from other fronts but also three of its former comrades.
While ex-CPM leaders Suresh Keezhattur and C O T Nazeer are giving the party a headache in Kannur, in Kozhikode, it is former CPM man Muhammad Shuaib — the father of Alan who was arrested last year under UAPA — who is posing a challenge for the party.
Ever since ‘Vayalkilikal’, a collective of villagers at Keezhattur in Kannur, launched their agitation against the filling up of the place’s paddy fields in the name of road development, the group — especially its firebrand leader Suresh — has become the thorn in CPM’s flesh.
This time, Suresh’s wife Latha Suresh is in the fray from Keezhattur ward of Taliparamba municipality. However, Suresh, CPM’s former Keezhattur branch secretary who was ousted for his stance in the Vayalkilikal agitation, said this is not a fight against CPM, but a fight for a noble cause.
“This is a ward where both UDF and BJP would struggle to get 100 votes together. In the 2015 local body polls, CPM won the ward with over 500 votes,” said Suresh. “The CPM rank and file have been working overtime to ridicule us, destroying our posters and saying we would not get even 50 votes. However, they know things would not be easy for them this time,” he said.“CPM central committee member M V Govindan came here to campaign. They also brought film actor Santhosh Keezhattur. This shows the desperation among CPM leaders,” he said.
He alleged that the police and official machinery have become mute spectators to the violations of rules and norms by CPM during the campaign. “The Vayalkilikal fear that CPM will also try something nasty to rig the elections,” he said.At Thalassery, Nazeer, CPM’s former local committee member who resigned from the party a few years ago, is busy giving final touches to Monday’s strategy for ensuring maximum votes to candidates of his outfit Kiwis Club.
“CPM’s politics in Kannur is based on terrorising people and other parties. This worsens when they deal with minorities,” alleged Nazeer. “The ‘development’ they have been trying to implement here has nothing to do with the progress of people. In Thalassery, crores of rupees were wasted in the name of development. Even now they have been looting people as none dares to challenge their one-upmanship,” he said. He knows what it is like to take a public stand against CPM, having been attacked by the party workers during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Kiwis Club has fielded two candidates, Valeed Basheer Moosa in ward 45 and Muhammad Shuhaib in Palissery, as independents in Thalassery municipality. “We have received several threats on social media. Luckily, there has been no physical assault,” said Nazeer.
Shuaib, who is contesting from Valiyangadi ward of Kozhikode Corporation as an RMPI candidate, is also causing some embarrassment to CPM. Shuaib, who had quit the party, had earlier told TNIE that his candidature had nothing to do with the arrest of his son Alan. Hailing from a family of hardcore IUML loyalists, Shuaib had embraced communism after being fascinated by the humanist elements in its ideology.
“LDF is not just a three-letter word, but the quintessential side of humanity. However, the comrades have failed to gauge the thoughts and aspirations of fellow travellers and martyrs, and the rot has crept into all levels of the party,” he had said. Shuaib first hit the streets of Kozhikode as a campaigner for LDF during the assembly elections in 1987. Now, life has come full circle. He is walking through the streets of Valiyangadi once again, this time as a candidate, seeking people’s support.