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MV Govindan, state secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Kerala has defended the party’s decision to field former minister KK Shailaja in Peravoor, stating that she was the only Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate who could defeat Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Sunny Joseph in the constituency.
While most MLAs of CPI(M) are contesting from their sitting seat, Shailaja was shifted from Mattannur to Peravoor, both in Kannur district. In Mattanur, a CPI(M) stronghold, Shailaja had won with a record majority of 60,963 votes in the 2021 Assembly election. She had secured 61.9 % of the total votes polled. Though Shailaja had won from Peravoor in 2006, she had lost the seat to Sunny Joseph in 2011. Sunny Joseph has retained the seat since then.
In an interview with television channel Mathrubhumi News, Govindan said that Shailaja is a prominent leader of the CPI(M) and that the party would wrest the seat using her. “Shailaja teacher is a Kannur native. She has both won and lost from Peravoor. She is the only LDF candidate who can beat the KPCC president in that seat,” Govindan said. He rubbished allegations that shifting the constituency was part of an attempt to sideline her.
“The party has taken a decision that there is no need to field candidates in a seat they have won for two consecutive times. That is how we found a new candidate. He is the state secretary of DYFI and it is his home constituency too,” he said, referring to VK Sanoj.
In 2011, Sunny beat Shailaja with a margin of 3440 votes. In the last Assembly election, CPI(M)’s Sakeer Hussain lost to Sunny Joseph with a margin of 3172 votes.
Though Shailaja had won with a record margin in 2021, the CPI(M) had refused to include her in the state cabinet. While the party argued that no one in the previous LDF Ministry except Pinarayi Vijayan was given a post in the Cabinet, it created lots of controversy, considering the popularity of Shailaja as the health minister in the previous ministry. Shailaja was in charge of the Health department when the state grappled with the Nipah outbreak in 2018 and later the pandemic.