Thiruvananthapuram, 01 June(HS): All Indian Trinamool Congress will have its first taste of Kerala politics as the party’s nominee P V Anvar, announced his move to take on other political outfits in the bye-poll to be held from Nilambur on 19th June.

Interestingly, it was the resignation of Anvar who was elected as an independent supported by the LDF in the 2021 assembly election that necessitated the bye-poll. Anwar fell out with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan as the latter refused to toe the diktat of the former in appointing police officials friendly towards carriers of gold and other contraband smuggled through the Calicut International Airport from West Asian countries.

“Nilambur has a 70 per cent Muslim population and their main source of income is through smuggling of gold and other contraband. The police officials in the district owing allegiance to the Sangh Parivar were seizing the contraband and arresting the youth who operate as carriers,” Anwar had told reporters on Saturday and Sunday.

He said it was to fight the Sangh Parivar elements that he quit as a member of the House and contesting as a candidate sans any allies. The Congress has fielded Aryadan Shaukat while M Swaraj, a member of a wealthy landlord family is the CPI(M) candidate.

Though the BJP was caught in double mind about contesting the by-poll, by Sunday morning the party declared the name of Mohan George, a Christian migrant from central Travancore as party nominee. The party leadership hopes to poach into the considerable number of Christian voters in the constituency, all of them immigrants from Southern districts of Kerala.

Hindusthan Samachar / Manohar Yadavatti