Malappuram: The Muslim-majority Malappuram district has mostly spurned the LDF and this time also, it is likely to go the UDF way except in one or two seats. In the 2011 Assembly elections, the UDF won 14 of the 16 constituencies which helped it form the government when the overall majority was thin. The LDF was restricted to two seats- Ponnani and Thavanur- which it won with small margins. The Muslim League won all the 12 seats it contested and the Congress two.
The LDF candidate, CPI’s Awar Kaliyath, suffered the worst defeat in the state when he was pushed to the fourth position with a mere 2,700 votes against Muslim League’s P.K Basheer. The BJP came third with 3,448 votes. All the Muslim League candidates won with high margins and Mr P. Ubaidullah, who contested from Malappuram constituency, won by a whopping majority of 44,508 votes, the highest in the state.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha election too, the UDF registered an impressive victory in two Parliament constituencies of the district. Muslim League won both Malappuram and Ponnani. Ponnani witnessed a fierce battle when Mr V. Abdurahman, a former KPCC member, contested as LDF independent that ended up in the victory of Muslim League’s E.T. Muhammed Basheer.
However, in the 2015 civic body elections, the UDF suffered a setback primarily because of the rift between the League and the Congress in many parts of the district. Both parties fought against each other which helped the LDF win more seats. The rift also led to the formation of the Janakeeya Vikasana Munnni jointly by the LDF and the Congress that wrested power in Kondotty and Parappanangadi municipalities. The concoction termed by the Muslim League as ‘Sambar Munnani’ poses a threat to the UDF vote banks in constituencies like Kondotty and Tirurangadi.
The BJP has also improved its presence in the district through the local body elections by winning 19 seats in municipalities and 17 in panchayat wards.
