A day after his candidature was officially announced, M.K. Raghavan, the incumbent MP of Kozhikode, formally launched his election campaign on (March 9) Saturday.
District Congress Committee president K. Praveen Kumar and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) district president M.A. Razak accompanied him as he sought the blessings of writer M.T. Vasudevan Nair for his fourth consecutive innings as a Congress candidate in the constituency.
Even as his opponents Elamaram Kareem and M.T. Ramesh of the CPI(M) and the BJP respectively went out with their election campaigns formally, Raghavan was impeded by the lack of a formal announcement by the Congress Working committee. However, since the party had announced much earlier that the sitting MPs could get another chance, his candidature was almost certain.
After visiting MT at his house in the morning, Mr. Raghavan went ahead with the last day of his ‘Janahridaya Yatra’. The Yatra, which was launched on March 1, was the party’s strategy to keep Mr. Raghavan’s visibility in the constituency alive when the formal announcement was yet to come, while other candidates had begun their campaigns.
The valedictory of the ‘Janahridaya Yatra’ thus became Mr. Raghavan’s first official election convention this season. The roadshow that marked the end of the Yatra started from Mavoor Road Junction and proceeded to the beach in the evening where IUML State president Panakkad Syed Sadique Ali Shihab Thangal inaugurated the convention.
Meanwhile, his opponent Elamaram Kareem is already in the heat of the campaign. The election convention of the Left Democratic Front at Muthalakulam in the city on Saturday was inaugurated by Rashtriya Janata Dal State president M.V. Sreyamskumar, while Communist Party of India district president K.K. Balan presided. Ministers P.A. Mohamed Riyas and A.K. Saseendran, besides MLAs and other LDF leaders, attended.
