Date:12/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/12/stories/2006051212160300.htm

Kerala - Kozhikode

Namesakes trouble candidates

Staff Reporter

Kozhikode: Namesake candidates, particularly pertaining to major contestants, have garnered a portion of the votes in many of the Assembly constituencies in the district.

In Koduvally, where the Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran) president, K. Muraleedharan, contested on a UDF platform, there were two other Muraleedharans who secured a total of 4,432 votes.

The LDF-supported independent, P.T.A. Rahim, who defeated him, also lost some votes to P.P. Abdu Rahim, another independent. The latter got 524 votes. U.C. Raman, the lone UDF nominee who made it to the Assembly from the district, retained the Kunnamangalam seat by a margin of less than 300 votes. However, an independent candidate M.K. Raman obtained 2,135 votes.

In Koyilandy, where the DIC(K) candidate, P. Sankaran, lost by a margin of over 18,000 votes, an independent candidate by the same name got 1,394 votes. While K. Pradeep Kumar, an independent candidate who contested from Kozhikode-I constituency, got 535 votes, another candidate Sujanabalan Nair got 523 votes from the same segment.

It was here A. Pradeep Kumar of the CPI(M) and A. Sujanapal of the Congress locked horns in a high-pitched battle. The DYFI State secretary won this seat by a margin of 7,705 votes over Mr. Sujanapal. Independent candidates P.M.A. Salam and M.P.A. Salam secured 678 and 533 votes respectively from Kozhikode-II constituency. Another independent K.P.M. Zahir secured 919 votes. This constituency witnessed a keen contest between P.M.A. Salam of the INL and T.P.M. Zahir of the IUML.

In Thiruvambady, an independent, Mayin, managed to get 1,155 votes. In this UDF stronghold, the IUML candidate, M.C. Mayin Haji, was defeated by Mathai Chacko of the CPI(M) by a margin of over 5,000 votes.