THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The hilly terrains of Kannur’s Peravoor are poised to take centre stage in the upcoming assembly elections, with a high-voltage contest brewing between sitting MLA and Congress state chief Sunny Joseph and CPM’s foremost woman leader K K Shailaja.
Setting the stage for the duel, the CPM’s Kannur district secretariat on Tuesday cleared Shailaja’s name for Peravoor. The party’s state leadership had earlier decided against fielding the former minister from her sitting seat, Mattannur. The final decision on candidates will be taken at the CPM state secretariat meeting on Wednesday and the state committee on Thursday.
There are indications that Shailaja has conveyed to the CPM state leadership that she can reclaim Peravoor, a seat she won in 2006 before losing to Sunny in 2011. However, the party is wary of creating the impression that Shailaja—once hailed as a potential woman chief minister—was being sidelined. “It’s more of a Catch-22.
Keeping her away would have triggered a debate. Initially, she was unwilling to contest from anywhere other than Mattannur, which did not go down well with the leadership and led to the decision not to field her. That’s when she expressed willingness to take up the Peravoor challenge. It appears the central leadership, too, was keen to avoid a perception battle over Shailaja teacher,” CPM sources in Kannur said.
A close look at Peravoor’s inner dynamics suggests the contest will be anything but easy for either side. With a sizeable settler population from central Kerala, the constituency has largely backed the Congress for the past 15 years. It also has a significant Muslim population, adding another crucial factor to the electoral equation.
“In 2021, the trend favoured the Left, and the LDF enjoyed strong backing from the Muslim community. There was also some sentiment against sitting MLA Sunny. The CPM fielded Sakeer Hussain to tap this potential, and it worked to a large extent. He increased the LDF’s vote share by 2.55%, while Sunny Joseph’s share fell by 1.17%. This time too, Sakeer could have proved effective,” a local source said.
Though the Congress is yet to announce its candidate, it is almost certain to field Sunny, who appears unperturbed by the entry of Shailaja — the CPM’s most formidable face in the assembly elections.
“Whoever be the LDF candidate, it’s certain that the UDF will win hands down. I’ve contested three elections here, two of them when the conditions favoured the LDF. The UDF’s performance in Lok Sabha polls and the local body polls, where we won most of the panchayats, shows our majority will only go up,” Sunny told TNIE.
Shamseer out
With the Kannur party secretariat opting not to field him, it is almost certain that Speaker A N Shamseer will not get another chance to contest. In his place, Karayi Rajan will contest from Thalassery. Instead of state secretary M V Govindan, his wife and senior leader P K Shyamala will contest from Taliparamba, while Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will defend Dharmadom.
