Rema faces 3 namesakes,says LDF’s fears evident

While there were two namesakes in the fray who garnered more than 500 votes in the 2016 assembly elections, she has to face three this time.
K K Rema, RMPI state secretariat member and UDF pick for Vadakara
K K Rema, RMPI state secretariat member and UDF pick for Vadakara

KOZHIKODE: Once again, K K Rema of the Revolutionary Marxist Party of India (RMPI) who is contesting the coming assembly election in Vadakara with the support of UDF will have to face namesakes. While there were two namesakes in the fray who garnered more than 500 votes in the 2016 assembly elections, she has to face three this time.

In the 2016 polls, Rema secured over 20,000 votes facing LDF candidate C K Nanu of Janata Dal (S) who secured 49,211 votes and UDF candidate Manayath Chandran of Janata Dal (United) who got 39,700 votes. Nanu won the election by a margin of over 9,500 votes. 

“In many cases, a namesake can cause a poll debacle. The best example is in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections when Congress’ V M Sudheeran lost to CPM’s K S Manoj by 1,009 votes in Alappuzha, while his namesake V S Sudheeran (Virippukandathil Sreedharan Sudheeran) polled 8,281 votes,” said political analyst M G Radhakrishnan. K K Rema is also likely to face a similar situation. For the CPM, defeating Rema is a prestigious issue, he added.

When Rema, in her continuing fight against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his CPM, has the backing of UDF this time, there are three dummy candidates -- K K Rema, K T K Rema and P K Rema to steal her votes. As per the political history of the state, the dummy candidates had made a huge impact on the chances of prominent candidates in several constituencies.

Talking to TNIE, Rema said, “My fight is not against the namesake candidates deployed by LDF out of fear of losing the election. My fight is only against the political fascism promoted by the Pinarayi government in all these years. Even last time, I had to face namesake candidates but I still stood by my word. We can’t no more let Pinarayi sell off our state to the capitalist and market forces.”

“When we go out campaigning now, more stress is being given to create awareness among the people about my correct initials.”

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