Will Shailaja break the jinx for CPI(M) in Vadakara?

K.K. Shailaja addresses media in Kozhikode on CPI(M) candidates' list impact, aiming to win Vadakara Lok Sabha seat.

As K.K. Shailaja, MLA, addressed the media in Kozhikode on Tuesday evening soon after the declaration of the candidates’ list of the CPI(M) for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, one of the major questions posed to her was on the impact of the T.P. Chandrasekharan murder case on the elections.

“That case is before the [Kerala High] Court. The court verdict is important in this, and the guilty should be punished. Neither we nor the people of Vadakara want to rake it up during a Parliament election where serious political issues are being discussed. M.V. Govindan, CPI(M) State secretary, has already clarified that the party would abide by the court verdict,” she said.

Political observers, however, feel that her candidature itself is an indication of the CPI(M)’s attempt to wrest the seat, once a Left stronghold, back from the Congress, which has electorally benefited from the former’s alleged involvement in political violence.

Vadakara has a history of electing candidates with socialist leanings, and leaders such as K.B. Menon, A.V. Raghavan, and Arangil Sreedharan represented the seat till 1971. Thereafter, K.P. Unnikrishnan, who represented the Congress, Congress(U), and Congress(S), during various occasions, had an unbroken tenure from there till 1996. It was O. Bharathan, senior trade union leader, who defeated Mr. Unnikrishnan that year to bring the seat to the CPI(M) fold. From 1996 to 2009, Vadakara had been represented by party nominees in the Lok Sabha.

P. Sathidevi, incumbent MP, tasted defeat at the hands of Congress leader Mullappally Ramachandran in 2009, a year after Chandrasekharan, a popular CPI(M) leader in Onchiyam, broke away from the party and formed the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP). Chandrasekharan himself was a candidate in that election. On May 4, 2012, Chandrasekharan was murdered, and senior CPI(M) leaders were arraigned in the case.

The debate around political murders and the involvement of the CPI(M) in it contributed in no small measure to the defeat of party candidates A.N. Shamseer and P. Jayarajan, respectively, in subsequent Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and 2019. Though Mr. Shamseer managed to reduce the margin of loss to around 3,000 votes in 2014, Mr. Jayarajan, perceived by political rivals as a mastermind of political violence, lost to K. Muraleedharan by 84,663 votes. The RMP is now officially supporting the United Democratic Front too. The CPI(M) feels that Ms. Shailaja will be able to overcome the jinx in Vadakara through her popularity that cuts across various sections of society, including women voters.

Ms. Shailaja had been an MLA for the Koothuparamba Assembly seat, which is part of the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency, twice, and her track record as Health Minister has endeared her to a large number of people. Her margin of victory in the 2021 Assembly polls (60,963 votes) attests to that fact. It remains to be seen if the strategy will work out at the hustings.