Kozhikode: A keen contest is on the cards in Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency, traditionally a CPI(M) bastion, in Kozhikode district, where the brutal murder of Revolutionary Marxist Party leader T P Chandrasekharan two years ago still remains a talking point among the people.
Veteran Congress leader and Union Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramachandran takes on Left Democratic Front (LDF)`s A N Shamseer of CPI(M), in a prestigious fight, in which nine more candidates including BJP, Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) and AAP are also in the fray for the April 10 Lok Sabha polls.
This will be the first major election to be held after Chandrasekharan`s murder on May 4, 2012 at nearby Onchiyam, in which three CPI-M functionaries were found guilty by a court.
Vadakara consists of seven Assembly constituencies --Koothuparamba, Thalassery, Nadapuram, Vadakara, Kuttiadi, Perambra and Koyilandy.
With the experienced Congress leader Ramachandran in the fray from Vadakara for the second time and the Chandrasekharan murder being the most debated issue, the contest in the constituency has already hogged the limelight.
In the 2009 elections, Ramachandran had registered leads in six out of the seven Assembly segments except Thalassery. But in the last 2011 assembly elections, the LDF turned the tide by winning six Assembly seats except Koothuparamba.
A shrewd politician, Ramachandran, who hails from Thalassery, has tactfully kept the Chandrasekharan murder issue live to put the CPI(M) on the defensive.
He is also banking on the development works he had implemented in the constituency during his tenure as MP, including BSF camp at Nadapuram, CRPF unit at Perambra and the development of Vadakara Railway Station.
