Nilambur, April 16 (NationPress) The Kerala Opposition leader and prominent Congress figure V.D. Satheesan asserted on Wednesday that his party is poised to secure a significant victory in the Nilambur by-elections.

“As soon as the election date is declared, we will announce our candidate. The Left might be anticipating our announcement and considering candidates from our faction. We are confident of winning this by-election convincingly,” remarked Satheesan.

Although the Election Commission has not yet set a date for the Nilambur assembly by-election, both the ruling Left and the Congress-led Opposition have proclaimed their intentions to win.

Sources indicate that both political parties are currently in the process of finalizing their candidate selections.

Notably, during last year’s Palakkad Assembly by-election, the Left nominated dissident Congress leader Dr. Sarin as their candidate after he was denied a ticket by Congress. However, Sarin finished third, trailing the BJP candidate, while the Congress candidate achieved a resounding victory.

The vacancy for the Nilambur seat arose after two-time LDF-affiliated independent MLA P.V. Anvar resigned in January, citing Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s refusal to investigate alleged illicit activities involving senior police officer M. R. Ajith Kumar and Vijayan’s political secretary P. Sasi.

Anvar, previously a vocal critic of the UDF, has since allied himself with the Congress-led coalition.

Senior CPI-M legislator and Left convenor T.P. Ramakrishnan stated on Wednesday that the voters of Nilambur are eager to teach the Congress-led opposition a lesson.

In response, Anvar countered that the Left is struggling to find candidates, saying, “Is the CPI-M in such a critical situation that they cannot even identify a single party member to contest? Just wait and see when the votes are counted. The Congress candidate will win by the largest margin ever.”

In the 2016 Assembly elections, after Congress leader Aryadan Mohammed stepped back from politics, Anvar defeated his son, Aryadan Shoukath, by more than 10,000 votes.

Since 1970, the Congress candidate has won consistently, with the only exception in 1982 when the CPI-M triumphed in Nilambur.

Shoukath’s father holds the record with eight victories. In 2021, Anvar again won, beating Congress leader V. V. Prakash by a narrow margin of 2,700 votes.

Meanwhile, the Congress party finds itself divided between Shoukath and Malappuram district Congress candidate V.S. Joy, while the CPI-M is reaching out to independent candidates, including retired professor Thomas Mathew, who previously ran against Aryadan Mohammed in 2011.

The deadline for finalizing the electoral rolls in the constituency is April 24.

The Congress party on Wednesday opted to delay a planned protest march in light of the upcoming by-election.