States »SoutPosted at: May 2 2021 6:37PM RMP gives befitting reply by trouncing CPI-M led LDF candidate in Vatakara
By K P Pushparaj
Kozhikode, May 2 (UNI) Even as the CPI-M led Left Democratic Front (LDF) has sweeped the election to the State Assembly by winning around two-thirds of the total 140 seats, the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) has given a befitting reply to its arch rival CPI-M by defeating its LDF candidate from Vatakara Assembly constituency.
K K Rema, wife of slain T P Chandrasekaran, founder of RMP, a splinter group of the CPI-M, has won from the Vadakara Assembly constituency by defeating her nearest LDF rival, Manayat Chandran, with a comfortable margin of 7,014 votes.
The RMP had the support of the Congress-led United Democratic Front(UDF) in executing its long-cherished revenge against the killers of the party founder.
The UDF did not field its candidate in the Vatakara Assembly Constituency.
It was not an election but a mission for the RMP to defeat the CPI-M led LDF candidate.
And close to nine years after their founder and stalwart leader was hacked to death on May 4, 2012, the RMP settled its political score by defeating the LDF nominee.
A former DYFI Kozhikode District Secretary and a CPI-M member T P Chandrasekharan of Onjiyam in Vadakara near here had formed a splinter party called the RMP, in 2009. But the 51-year politician, popularity known as TP, was murdered in cold blood three years after he quit the CPI-M.
The RMP commander was brutally hacked to death on May 4, 2012, by a group comprising and conspired allegedly by the CPI-M. He had 51 wounds on his body. Though the conspirators went scot-free, as many as 11 accused, including three Marxist party members were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Following TP's death, K K Rema, wife of the slain leader, took the reins of the party. The party continued to maintain the alleged involvement of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and other top CPI-M leaders in the murder.
Soon after the party formation, T P contested in the Lok Sabha election in 2009 but lost. Later, Rema contested from Vadakara constituency in the Assembly election in 2016, but she lost in the poll.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the RMP supported the UDF candidate and defeated the LDF candidate.
The unification of the RMP with the UDF worked well in 2019 when Congress leader K. Muraleedaran defeated Marxist leader P Jayarajan for over 83,000 votes. This time the UDF is reciprocating the deal with the RMP by offering their support to its candidate to take on their common enemy.
Probably envisaging a set back, the CPI-M had conceded the constituency to one of its coalition partner, the Loktantrik Janata Dal. LJD leader Maniyath Chandran is the LDF candidate though RMP would want to contest directly against a CPI-M nominee.
Winning the seat is not only prestigious but politically strategic for the RMP. And now the RMP has made its mission come true.
"Its not my victory. It's the victory of TP" said Rema after her win was confirmed by noon.
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