Kannur likely to remain with the Reds

KANNUR: C N Padmanabhan is back from Dhammam to his roots in Payyannur in Kannur district of Kerala. He suffered the desert for 15 years and managed some money that made his family life comfortable.
Before he became an immigrant he was like a good Kannurian, a Marxist sympathiser. Today in his middle age he is not quite sure. He says Communist Party of India (Marxist) can do some good for organised labour but it is of no use to others.What of the alternative, the Congress?
He has never thought of Congress. And Bharatiya Janata Party? ���I only know it for the wrong reasons."
So Pappan is again rooting for CPM, like most in Kannur ��� the battleground along with Kasaragode for the third and final round of polls.Even in 2001 Assembly elections when a massive anti-CPM wave swept away everything crimson (United Democratic Front got 99 of 140 seats), Kannur and Kasaragode grudgingly yielded just five of 15 seats. That too, three for the Muslim League, and only two to the Congress.
Ever since Kannur became the cradle for communism 50 years ago, it has remained faithful. And the scene is likely to be repeated this time too.
The only stain in the "all-glory for CPM" scene is the ongoing Comrade Achuthanadan tangle. The politburo mix up that catapulted senior Marxist leader V S Achutanandan to the zenith of popularity has shaken the party a bit in Kannur.
Communist leadership has, ever since the movement began, remained with Malabar, be it A K Gopalan, E M S Namboodripad or E K Nayanar. For the first time the spectre of losing it a a Travancorian looms large.