In Malappuram deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein is a poll issue. Needless to say, so is United States President George Bush.
In Malappuram, where 68 per cent of the electorate is Muslim, George Bush is a hate figure.
MALAPPURAM: In Malappuram deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein is a poll issue. Needless to say, so is United States President George Bush.
With the Arabian Sea on the west and sandwiched between Thrissur and Palakad districts, Malappuram is host to an unthinkable electoral experiment, where the poll matrix is woven with Marx and Muslims.
The comrades have aligned with the radical and more militant Jamait-e-Islami, even as the moderate Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) is with Congress-led United Democratic Front.
Malappuram is also dubbed as Kerala's Kashmir, not because of its scenic beauty, but it is the only district in the country, with the exception of perhaps Kashmir, boasting of 68 per cent Muslim population, a sizeable chunk being Gulf NRIs.
After the Iraq war, several streets and villages in this district were renamed 'Saddam street', 'Saddam village' and 'Saddam beach'. In Muslim-dominated constituencies CPM honchos – from Prakash Karat to state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan – take special care to highlight UPA government's anti-Iran stand.
At several of meetings Karat has been saying: "UPA government is implementing the Common Minimum Programme of Bush."
Malappuram is the first e-literate district in the country and its comparative prosperity can be gauged from the fact that there are 2.80 lakh mobile phone users among its 37 lakh residents.
Top IUML leaders, Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahmed and P K Kunhalikutty, a former minister in the Congress-led United Democratic Front, who was forced to quit following his alleged involvement in a sleaze scandal, are naturally worried.
The CPM tasted blood in 2004 as its T K Hamza snatched the Lok Sabha seat from Manjeri from the IUML, first of its kind in the state. Jamait-e-Islamic spokesman Amir T Arif Ali said, "We will wholeheartedly support the LDF, which opposed US policies on Iran nuclear issue."
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