The victory of the expelled Communist Party of India-Marxist leader A P Abullakutty as the Congress candidate from the Kannur assembly constituency with a massive margin of 12043 votes has sent shock waves across the CPI-M camp.
Abdullakutty was a two-term member of the Lok Sabha from the Kannur seat as a CPI-M candidate.
More than the massive victory for Abdullakutty, what haunts the CPI-M leadership is that the Bharatiya Janata Party has also increased its vote margin from 3000 to more than 5000. Generally when a Congress candidate wins an election the CPI-M camp used to spread the rumours that the BJP had transferred the party votes to Congress. However with the improvement in the BJP's vote share, this argument also does not hold true.
While Kannur assembly constituency has been a traditional bastion of the Congress what upsets the CPI-M is that a leader like Abdullakutty who changed sides has won with a massive margin. The CPI-M is also upset over the fact that Kannur district is considered as the 'red fort' of the party.
The two politbureau members of the CPI-M from Kerala, party state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and the state home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan hail from Kannur. The CPI-M has also an array of state secretariat members from the district including state health minister P K Sreemathy, E P Jayarajan and M V Govindan.
State Congress president Ramesh Chennithala while speaking to rediff.com said that the victory was expected but the margin surprised him. Chennithala said that the people of three assembly constituencies Kannur, Alapuzha and Ernakulam had reacted against the anti-people policies of the CPI-M led Left Democratic Front government.
