Malappuram: The Indian Union Muslim League will be satisfied with two seats in the Lok Sabha elections - Ponnani and Malappuram - where sitting lawmakers E.T. Muhammed Basheer and P.K. Kunhalikutty will be candidates.
Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, IUML national political advisory committee chairman Panakkad Hyder Ali Shihab Thangal said rather than getting one more MP for the party, the Congress becoming the single largest party with majority seats, was more important.
"We want the BJP out and the Congress in," the IUML supremo said.
He also announced the candidature of Navas Gani for the Ramanathapuram seat in Tamil Nadu as part of the Congress-DMK alliance. Mr Basheer, the organising committee secretary, is contesting in Ponnani for the third consecutive term, where Nilambur MLA P.V. Anwar is the LDF independent candidate.
In 2014, he defeated Congress rebel V. Abdul Rahman, the current MLA of Thanur, by a margin of 25,410 votes. National general secretary P.K. Kunhalikutty is contesting for the second time from the Malappuram which he had won in a by-election with a massive margin of 171,038 votes in 2017. CPM's student leader V.P. Sonu is the LDF candidate here.
