Painting Malappuram red remains a distant dream for CPM; IUML retains fort
UDF candidate E T Mohammed Basheer won the Malappuram seat with a historical majority against LDF candidate V Vaseef by securing a majority of over 3 lakh votes.
Basheer received 64,4006 votes as compared to Vaseef, who secured 3,43,888 votes. The fact that Basheer’s majority is the largest in the history of Malappuram adds lustre to this victory. It is a double delight for the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) as it could continue to hold its fortress by increasing majority.
BJP’s calculated move of fielding a Muslim candidate in Malappuram bore no fruit with Dr M Abdul Salam securing a mere 85,361 votes. E T Mohammed Basheer who has represented the Ponnani constituency thrice in the Lok Sabha came to his native land of Malappuram with great hopes of victory. His campaign highlighted Basheer’s experience in the Lok Sabha while pointing out his previous activities and political struggles. Basheer’s stance against the ruling Central and State governments also translated into votes in Malappuram.
Matters like the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s controversial remarks were greatly discussed in Malappuram. The controversy over the film ‘The Kerala Story’ also added fuel to the fire. The election results have proved that the fears of the IUML-Samastha rift would lead to votes going astray were unfounded.
The LDF’s move of fielding a DYFI leader, Vaseef, to heat up the competition also failed to make any impact on the young voters, as the front had hoped. Along with that, Vaseef’s campaign centred around how it was the LDF that was vocally fighting against the RSS and BJP at the Centre. They hoped that the rift between the IUML and Samastha would work in their favour.
The 2024 Lok Sabha election results reinforced the fact that Malappuram will remain green, no matter what.
Even with no hopes of victory, the BJP’s attempt was to cash in maximum votes by fielding a Muslim candidate. They attempted to do so by bringing in the former chancellor of Calicut University, Dr M Abdul Salam. In his campaign, Salam sang praises of Modi and spoke about the schemes the Central Government had implemented. All this turned futile with Modi’s controversial comments and ‘Kerala Story’ taking precedence in the electoral debate.
| Candidate | Front/ Party | Vote | Percentage of votes |
| E T Mohammed Basheer | UDF, IUML | 644006 | 59.35% |
| V Vaseef | LDF, CPM | 343888 | 31.69% |
| Dr M Abdul Salam | NDA, BJP | 85361 | 7.87% |
The history of Malappuram
The IUML’s reign over Malappuram constituency began in 1952 with B Pokker’s victory. Even when Manjeri became a Lok Sabha constituency in 1957, the League retained its seat with Pokker. From 1962-1971, M Mohammed Ismail represented Manjeri in the Lok Sabha. Ibrahim Sulaiman Seth, a national IUML leader, planted his victory flag in Manjeri in 1989.
In 1991, E Ahmed took the party’s victory forward and remained the MP till 1999. However, Manjeri abandoned the IUML in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. IUML fielded K P A Majeed from Manjeri and moved E Ahmed, then sitting MP for Ponnani. As Majeed was pro-Mujahid, a section of Sunni Muslims votes were swayed by this. Along with this, the ice-cream parlour controversy and T K Hamsa’s personal influence in the constituency brought the IUML down. Thus, for the first time in the history of Manjeri, a red flag flew from the fort through Hamsa’s victory. However, in 2009 after the Manjeri constituency was dissolved and the Malappuram constituency came into being, the IUML regained its seat through E Ahmed.
| Candidate | Front/ Party | Vote | Percentage of votes |
| P K Kunhalikutty | UDF, IUML | 589873 | 57.01% |
| V P Sanu | LDF, CPM | 329720 | 31.87% |
| Unnikrishnan | NDA, BJP | 82332 | 7.96% |
| P Abdul Majeed Faizi | SDPI | 19106 | 1.85% |
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections too, the League vowed to keep Malappuram green and achieved this through E Ahmed defeating P K Sainaba by 1.94 lakh votes. Then sitting MP E Ahmed’s death in 2017 resulted in a by-election where IUML leader P K Kunhalikutty emerged victorious with a 1.71 lakh majority. Subsequently, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the majority of Kunhalikutty increased to 2.60 lakh votes.
However, within two years, the stage was set for another by-elections as Kunhalikutty resigned from his post to contest the Assembly elections. In 2021, UDF’s majority went down to 1.14 lakh with the LDF bringing in V P Sanu.
| Candidate | Front/ Party | Vote | Percentage of votes |
| MP Abdussamad Samadani | UDF, IUML | 538248 | 48.96% |
| V P Sanu | LDF, CPM | 423633 | 38.53% |
| M P Abdullahkutty | NDA, BJP | 68935 | 6.27% |
| Taslim Rahmani | SDPI | 46758 | 4.25% |
| Constituency | Candidate | Majority |
| Kondotty | E T Mohammed Basheer | 44987 |
| Manjeri | E T Mohammed Basheer | 42320 |
| Perinthalmanna | E T Mohammed Basheer | 26799 |
| Mankada | E T Mohammed Basheer | 41033 |
| Malappuram | E T Mohammed Basheer | 54041 |
| Vellikunnu | E T Mohammed Basheer | 33182 |
| Vengara | E T Mohammed Basheer | 56397 |