The fielding of K. Muraleedharan by the Congress will not impact the victory chances of LDF nominee P. Jayarajan in Vadakara, CPI(M) Kozhikode district secretary P. Mohanan and party Central Committee member Elamaram Karim claimed on Tuesday .

They told the media that the nomination of Mr. Muraleedharan posed no threat to the CPI(M). Mr. Karim pointed out that Mr. Muraleedharan had tasted defeat in various Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

Reacting to Mr. Muraleedhran’s reported remarks that his fight was against political violence, Mr. Karim referred to the alleged role of K. Sudhakaran, the Congress candidate in Kannur, in many incidents of violence in Malabar.

On the support extended by the Revolutionary Marxist Party ( RMP) to the UDF candidate in Vadakara, he said that this “local outfit” had been doing this for a long time as was evident in the grama panchayats at Chorode, Eramala, Azhiyur, and Onchiyam. The CPI(M) leaders claimed their party nominees would easily sail through in the Kozhikode and Vadakara seats as the sitting MPs, M.K. Raghavan and Mullappally Ramachandran, had no achievements to their credit.

Mr. Mohanan said the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front had won hands down in the Assembly segments in Kozhikode district in the 2011 and 2016 polls. But for various reasons the CPI(M) lost the Lok Sabha polls in 2009 and 2014.

Now with the Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) joining the Left coalition the CPI(M) would have better chances of winning the elections from Kozhikode and Vadakara.