Congress Picks Aryadan Shoukath for Nilambur Bypoll in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: A day after the EC announced byelections to the Nilambur constituency in Kerala, the Congress declared Aryadan Shoukath as the UDF candidate.

The bye-election was necessitated due to the resignation of P V Anvar, who won the seat as an independent candidate with the backing of CPM in the assembly poll in 2021. He resigned following differences with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Earlier, the Kerala PCC leaders met in Kochi and forwarded Shoukath's name to the AICC. Later, AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal sent a letter signed by him stating that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has approved the candidature of Shoukath for the byelection.

Aryadan Shoukath, who is the son of Congress stalwart Aryadan Mohammad, contested the assembly poll from Nilambur against Anwar in 2016 and lost by a margin of 11,504 votes.

In 2021, the Congress denied a ticket to Shoukath and fielded V V Prakash who put up a close fight with Anwar, losing the seat by just 2,700 votes.

Anwar is not happy with Shoukath's candidature. He has openly supported Malappuram DCC president V S Joy. "I will wait for a couple of days to see the response of the Nilambur electorate towards Congress's decision to field Shoukath and then take a final call," he told mediapersons.

Anwar, who won back-to-back elections from Nilambur in 2016 and 2021, has considerable influence in the constituency. His decision will be crucial.

Meanwhile, the CPM led LDF is holding discussions to finalise its candidate. The BJP, which secured 8595 votes in the last assembly elections, has not decided whether to contest the bypoll.