Congress' Aryadan Shoukath.
Credit: X/@vdsatheesan
Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress on Monday named Aryadan Shoukath as the UDF's candidate for the upcoming by-election to the Nilambur Assembly segment in Kerala.
Shoukath is the son of former minister, late Aryadan Mohammed, who was Nilambur MLA for nearly three decades from 1987 to 2016 until he quit active politics owing to health reasons. Though Shoukath contested as a Congress candidate in 2016, he lost to CPM-backed independent candidate P V Anvar.
Congress finalised Shoukath by ignoring the differences expressed by Anvar who preferred Congress Malappuram district president V S Joy.
Anvar, who won from Nilambur in 2016 and 2021 as CPM-backed independent MLA severed ties with the CPM owing to differences with leadership recently. He quit the MLA post in January and joined the TMC.
Reacting to Shoukath's candidature, Anvar told reporters that he would take a decision on his future course of action in a couple of days after evaluating the public reaction to Shoukath's candidature. He alleged that Shoukath explored the option of contesting as a CPM-backed independent candidate.
Congress leaders including AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said Shoukath is expected to win by a good margin. He also said the Congress would be considering the by-poll as the semi-finals of the 2026 assembly polls in Kerala.
Fifty-nine-year-old Shoukath is the producer and scriptwriter of a few Malayalam films related to socio-political issues, including those on issues in the Muslim community. He had also served as Nilambur municipality chairman.
Meanwhile, the CPM and the BJP are yet to announce candidates.
BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar's statement on Sunday that this by-poll is an insignificant one as only less than a year is left for the general elections to the state assembly had triggered speculations that BJP may skip the by-election.
However, it it believed that the party is likely to give the seat to coalition partner BDJS which is led by SNDP Yogam leader Thushar Vellappally.