CPI-M to field youth leader for Malappuram by-election

The CPI-M on Saturday announced its local youth leader M.B.Faizal would contest the upcoming Malappuram Lok Sabha by-election scheduled for April 12.

State CPI-M state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told reporters here that the state unit of the party has cleared Faizal's name and sent it to the national leadership.

"The upcoming poll would be an evaluation of the 10-month-old CPI-M-led Pinarayi Vijayan Kerala government and also the communal politics played by the BJP national government," said Balakrishnan.

Faizal expressed total surprise at his name being cleared to contest the seat.

"The good governance of our state government will be what we would be showcasing when we are on the campaign trail. I, my party and the Left Front is confident about the outcome of the polls," said Faizal, who is an advocate by profession.

Faizal is currently a member in the Malappuram district panchayat and is also the president of the Democratic Youth federation of India -- the youth wing of the party.

The seat fell vacant following the death of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) senior leader E. Ahamed who passed away in Delhi last month.

IUML is the second biggest ally of the Congress-led United Democratic Front and has already nominated its most popular face and sitting legislator P.K. Kunhalikutty who will file his nomination papers on Monday -- the day the entire top brass of the UDF would kick-off the election campaign.

The IUML leadership's first target is to better the margin by which Ahamed won in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

But the CPI-M is determined not just to give the IUML veteran a run for his money, but see him go down.

"In 2006, we fielded a youth leader K.T. Jaleel (present state minister for LSG) and defeated Kunhalikutty and now again we have decided to bank on youth and it's time that Kunhalikutty is stopped from progressing forward. It's time to show him his place and we are confident that Faizal will be able to do it," CPI-M central committee member A. Vijayaraghavan told the media.

--IANS

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