All eyes on Kerala bypoll ahead of Assembly elections next year, CPM banks on M Swaraj

CPM-backed legislator P V Anvar represented the seat until he quit amid growing distance with the party leadership. UDF now faces the prospect of ‘sidelined’ Anvar’s wrath

Former student leader and CPI(M) Secretariat member M Swaraj is contesting the Nilambur bypoll. (Facebook)

ThiruvananthapuramMay 31, 2025 03:47 IST

First published on: May 30, 2025 at 20:00 IST

THE CPI(M)’s decision on Friday to field popular former student leader and party Secretariat member M Swaraj as the candidate for the forthcoming Nilambur Assembly bypoll has officially drawn the battlelines in the high-profile seat.

The bypoll, which is slated for June 19, was necessitated after the resignation of sitting MLA P V Anvar in January. Anvar is a two-term Independent legislator who was backed by the CPI(M). He was once close to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, but their relationship is said to have soured in the last couple of years. Anvar went on to join the Trinamool Congress (TMC) after his resignation. While he has not announced his candidature yet, he has said the bypoll in Nilambur would be a fight against “Pinarayism”.

Alongside the high-stakes of this bypoll, the timing is crucial for the CPI(M) as it prepares for the Assembly elections in Kerala next year, in the face of anti-incumbency of two terms. The entry of Swaraj, a Nilambur native, means the CPI(M) is determined to put up a strong fight in the seat that it last contested in 2006.

Announcing him as the party candidate, CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan said, “The party wanted Swaraj to lead this political fight and the party is going to make great strides in the constituency. This bypoll will reflect the gains the Left is going to make in the coming local body elections this year and the Assembly polls next year.”

Swaraj has had a steep rise in the CPI(M). He started off with the Student Federation of India (SFI), the CPI(M)’s youth wing, and rose to become the state secretary of another party-linked student outfit, the Democratic Youth Federation of India.

In the 2016 Assembly elections, he defeated Congress veteran K Babu in Tripunithura constituency. He, however, lost the 2021 elections from the same seat. The following year, he was inducted into the Secretariat.

Nilambur history

Nilambur, which is part of the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, was a Congress bastion, with party veteran Aryadan Muhammed winning the seat continuously from 1987 to 2016, until Anvar entered the picture.

An up and coming leader at the time, who was previously with the Congress, Anvar was supported by the CPI(M) in the 2016 polls. He ended up defeating Muhammed’s son Aryadan Shoukath, who was contesting on the Congress ticket, by 11,500 votes. He retained the seat again in 2021 by a margin of 2,700 votes.

For the coming bypoll, the Congress has again fielded Shoukath.

Anvar initially demanded that the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) give the Nilambur ticket to his TMC but was snubbed by the Congress. Anvar has threatened to field his own candidate to hamper the UDF’s prospects, but has so far not done so.

The BJP has not yet decided to contest from the seat, with party state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar saying the by-election “was foisted upon the people”, considering the Assembly elections are just a year away.

The CPI(M) is hoping to reach out to the 45% Hindu vote in Nilambur, especially with the BJP out of the battle. About 43% of the population in Nilambur is Muslim, as per the 2011 Census.