Lone woman opposition MLA in Kerala sends a strong political message to CPI(M)

Even as only one of the 12 women candidates of UDF could make it to the Kerala Assembly, she is sending a strong message against political killings and will be a major opponent to the ruling CPI(M) in the Assembly.

K K Rema, who is the lone woman who won from the UDF side, is the wife of a dissident CPI(M) activist T P Chandrasekharan who was murdered by inflicting over 50 hack injuries on May 4, 2012 at Onchiyam in Kozhikode by a gang involving CPI(M) local leaders. The brutal killing was allegedly with the knowledge of the party's top leaders, especially the 'Kannur lobby,' owing to political vengeance. Some prominent local leaders of the party were among those convicted in the case.

Rema has been strongly campaigning against the CPI(M) leadership, especially over murder politics, over the years. The Revolutionary Marxist Party founded by Chandrasekharan had also worked against the CPI(M)'s prominent leader P Jayarajan in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In the 2016 Assembly elections, Rema contested and secured 20,500 votes.

This time the Congress-backed her and despite the pro-LDF trend across the state, Rema won from Vadakara constituency with a comfortable majority of around 8,000 votes against LDF's Manayat Chandran of the Lok Tantrik Janata Dal.

Rema's comment after her election victory was that it was Chandrasekharan's victory and the CPI(M) cadres would feel Chandrasekharan alive in the Kerala Assembly in the coming days.

Incidentally, the election results came just two days ahead of Chandrasekharan's ninth death anniversary on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, all the 10 women Congress candidates in the fray as well as the lone IUML women candidate from the UDF side got defeated in the elections, while 10 from the LDF made it to the Assembly.

The state had witnessed Mahila Congress state president Lathika Subash tonsuring her head in protest against denial of seat and poor representation of women. Though she contested as a rebel candidate at Ettumanoor in Kottayam district she could secure only around 7,400 votes.