Electrifying campaign for Kerala's 'semi-final' Nilambur polls ends

Thiruvananthapuram: The hardly three-week long electrifying campaign from the Nilambur by-poll, widely considered as the semi-finals of the 2026 Kerala assembly polls, ended on Tuesday.

Braving the rains, all candidates actively took part in the culmination of the campaign for the June 19 polling. The counting is on June 23.

While the ruling CPM-led Left Democratic Front is trying to retain its sitting seat and set the tone for hattrick victory for the Pinarayi Vijayan led team in the 2026 assembly polls, the Congress-led United Democratic Front is on a mission to wrest the seat it lost in 2016 after three decades and thereby trigger an anti-Pinarayi wave in the state.

Though a victory at Nilambur in Malappuram district is not there even in the distant dreams of the BJP, even a marginal increase in vote share will be a morale booster for Rajeev Chandrasekhar as it is the first election after he took over as BJP Kerala president.

Congress candidate Aryadan Shoukath is the son of Congress leader late Aryadan Mohammed, who was Nilambur MLA for three decades in a row.

CPM, which was initially considering many independents, later zeroed in on party state secretariat member M Swaraj, who is a native of Nilambur. It indeed energized the CPM camps, which was evident during the campaign, and made the contest tough for the Congress.

Communal campaigns over the support of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind backed political outfit Welfare Party to the Congress dominated the campaign. The death of a 15 year old boy, Ananthu, after suffering electric shock from a trap set for wild boar aggravated row over man-animal conflict, which is a burning issue of the constituency lying close to the forest areas.

The Nilambur battle is also very crucial for the Congress as it is part of the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat that is represented by AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the Lok Sabha.

The CPM had already succeeded in unleashing a whisper campaign that left-front under Pinarayi's leadership would retain power for a third time in the state. Hence a victory in the by-poll will be an impetus for the campaign.

BJP is testing the waters by wooing a Christian leader from the regional party Kerala Congress (Joseph), Mohan George, and fielding him as BJP candidate at Nilambur which has around ten percent Christian voters, which could play a crucial role as Muslims and Hindus are almost equal in strength with around 45 percent each.