Malappuram will witness a byelection to the Lok Sabha along with the Assembly election on Tuesday.
Interestingly, it is the second byelection in four years in Malappuram since the death of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) national president E. Ahamed in 2017.
When Ahamed’s death on February 1, 2017, had necessitated the first by-election two months later, the current byelection was necessitated by IUML national general secretary P.K. Kunhalikutty’s resignation a couple of months ago.
Mr. Kunhalikutty, who had quit the Assembly in 2017 to contest the Lok Sabha, quit the Lok Sabha in February this year and is contesting again to the Assembly from Vengara. The IUML leadership has described Mr. Kunhalikutty’s action as “a necessary step to bolster the party and to lead the party in a critical time in the recently held local body election and the ongoing Assembly election”.
But his detractors and rivals are united in describing the byelection as “an unnecessary one imposed on the people of Malappuram.” They have gone to the extent of describing it as an insult on the people of Malappuram and a sign of arrogance by the IUML in its heartland.
“Would Mr. Kunhalikutty have dared to do such an experiment had it been in any other constituency outside Malappuram?” chorused V.P. Sanu, A.P. Abdullakutty, and Taslim Rehmani, IUML’s rival candidates in Malappuram respectively of the Left Democratic Front (LDF), the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI).
They are taking on IUML’s M.P. Abdussamad Samadani in the current by-election. Mr. Samadani appears comfortable in Malappuram with his party’s solid vote base in the constituency. Tuesday’s will be the fifth election in Malappuram since the constituency was formed in the 2009 delimitation (fifth election in 12 years).
The margin of victory for the IUML always stood above one lakh. From 1.15 lakh in 2009, the margin of victory shot up to 1.94 lakh in 2014. When it was 1.71 lakh in the 2017 byelection, the margin soared to 2.60 lakh in the last Parliament election held in 2019.
Watchers of State politics say the current byelection would have got much more attention, especially negative attention, had it not coincided with the Assembly poll.
