The murder of Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) founder T.P. Chandrasekharan seven years ago is once again emerging as a key campaign issue in the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency.
The 2012 murder has been a campaign issue of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in every election — from local bodies to Assembly and Lok Sabha, ever since.
But, this time it is becoming more pronounced with P. Jayarajan of the CPI(M) in the fray from Vadakara and K.K. Rema of the RMP opting out of the race and deciding to campaign against the former Kannur district secretary of the CPI(M).
RMP State secretary N. Venu and Central committee members P. Kumarankutty and Ms. Rema have openly declared their support to the Congress candidate only to defeat Mr. Jayarajan, who they allege had employed the cult of violence in Kannur and rural Kozhikode. Earlier, the party wanted Ms. Rema, wife of Chandrasekharan, to contest the Lok Sabha polls as she had in the Vadakara Assembly segment in 2016.
“Our focus is to defeat Mr. Jayarajan. If the CPI (M) thinks his candidature will make him guiltless, the electorate will show that the party is in the docks,” said Ms. Rema. Vadakara parliamentary constituency includes two Assembly segments – Thalassery and Koothuparamba – in Kannur district, and five segments – Vadakara, Nadapuram, Kuttiyadi, Koyilandi and Perambra – in Kozhikode district. After the formation of the RMP and the murder of Chandrasekharan, the CPI(M) has been struggling to recapture the seat that the party has been traditionally winning hands down.
Chandrasekharan, a dissident leader of the CPI(M), had fought the Lok Sabha election of 2009, thus cutting into the vote bank of the Left Democratic Front.
The results eventually gave a windfall to the Congress nominee Mullappally Ramachandran, who won by a margin over 50,000 votes against the then sitting MP, P. Sathidevi, who is Mr. Jayarajan’s sister. In the high-pitched battle of 2014, the CPI(M) had marshalled its resources to recapture the Vadakara seat by fielding A.N. Shamseer, a DYFI leader and now Thalassery legislator. But, Mr. Ramachandran won by a whisker.