The Hindu : Kerala News : Stakes high for Muslim League

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 15, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Stakes high for Muslim League

By J.S. Bablu

E. Ahmed

PONNANI, APRIL 14. The Ponnani Lok Sabha constituency was in the news for two reasons in the last Parliamentary elections in 1999. It had registered the lowest voter turnout of 60.70 per cent among the 20 constituencies in the State, but Gulam Mehmood Banatwala (G.M. Banatwala), the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) national president, romped home with the highest victory margin of 1,30,478 votes.

With the exit of Mr. Banatwala from the poll arena, the IUML, a constituent of the United Democratic Front (UDF), is shifting its general secretary, E. Ahmed, to Ponnani this time from the neighbouring Manjeri. Mr. Ahmed had won from Manjeri four times in a row.

Though IUML circles try to play down the `denial' of the party ticket to Mr. Banatwala, a Mumbaite who could not speak the local language and for that reason is unacceptable to a section of the party workers here, political observers see in his `sidelining' attempts to project Mr. Ahmed as the national voice of the party. Mr. Banatwala had represented Ponnani in the lower house of Parliament in all but one election since 1977. In 1991, the party fielded Ibrahim Sulaiman Sait (who later quit the party to form the Indian National League) in Ponnani and retained the seat.

The IUML won five of the seven Assembly segments in the constituency (Tirur, Kuttippuram, Thirurangadi, Tanur and Perinthalmanna) in the 2001 Assembly elections. The Congress won the Ponnani Assembly segment while the Communist Party of India (Marxist) managed to win the Mankada seat, though with the lowest margin of 3,058 votes among the seven segments.

P.P. Suneer

A law graduate, Mr. Ahmed is known to be close to the senior Congress leader, K. Karunakaran, and had served as Industries Minister in the Karunakaran Cabinet from 1982 to 1987. He was elected to the Assembly from Kannur in 1967 and from Koduvally in 1977 besides representing Tanur in the Assembly three times, from 1980 to 1991.

According to Mr. Ahmed's campaign managers, they are now concentrating on forming election committees at the various levels. Mr. Ahmed will hit the campaign trail with a tour of the constituency beginning April 16 with stakes high for the party here.

The Communist Party of India (CPI), a constituent of the Left Democratic Front (LDF), is fielding P.P. Suneer, who contested against Mr. Banatwala last time unsuccessfully.

A young orator, Mr. Suneer entered politics through the All India Students Federation (AISF) by contesting a school election. A post-graduate in political science, Mr. Suneer, who is 36 years old, had been elected vice-chairman of the Calicut University Union twice. He has proved his mettle as State committee member of the AISF and the All India Youth Federation (AIYF). He is now a member of the Malappuram district council of the CPI.

Mr. Suneer has completed the first round of campaign and is well into the second round. ``We are now concentrating on family meetings,'' says a campaign manager of Mr. Suneer. LDF campaign managers say they will put up a strong challenge to the IUML strongman.

Some of the Muslim organisations are likely to field candidates in Ponnani, which has a large concentration of Muslim voters. The People's Democratic Party (PDP) has announced the candidature of its vice-chairman, U. Kunhumuhammed, here. The PDP candidate, C.K. Abdul Azeez, now working chairman of the party, had polled 23,484 votes in the1996 general elections. In 1998, the party improved its performance by securing 35,026 votes. The party did not contest the 1999 polls. A clear picture of the candidates to be put up by various Muslim organisations will emerge only after April 16, when the filing of nomination begins in the State.

The BJP, which has been increasing its vote share ever since it first contested in Ponnani in 1989, is fielding N. Aravindan. A 38-year-old post-graduate, Mr. Aravindan had served in the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and is now the party's Tirur mandalam president.

According to the latest data, Ponnani has a total of 11,59,810 voters, 5,97,641 of them women.

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