Thiruvananthapuram, March 11 : K.K. Shailaja’s fortunes turned golden, after Nipah struck Kozhikode a few years back. The way she handled that crisis catapulted her to where she stands now seen as ‘crisis slayer’.
She has had no reason to look back and with Covid, she turned out to be a “celebrity” with the way she initially tried to nip the pandemic in its bud in the state.
Her name, which also means ‘celebrity’ and she hold that stature to other candidates contesting under the Left Democratic Front in the April 6 Assembly polls, as she appears to be the most sought-after campaigner.
“For a week starting March 20, I will be away from my constituency — Mattanur in Kannur district campaigning for the Left candidates,” said Shailaja.
The 64-year-old, should consider herself lucky that she lost the 2011 Assembly polls because the CPI-M, this time has come out with a guideline, while selecting the candidates, all those who have had a successive two terms will not be considered for the April 6 polls.
The CPI-M appears to have rewarded her efforts and she has been moved out from Kuthuparambu Assembly constituency in Kannur district which she won in 2016 with a margin of 12,291 votes to the Mattanur constituency also in the same district, which is considered as one of the safest and strongest constituency of the party.
At the 2016 polls, the seat was won by the No. 2 in the Pinarayi Vijayan cabinet — E.P.Jayarajan, with a staggering margin of 43,381 votes, which was the second highest margin of victories and the highest for any CPI-M candidate in the state.
Jayarajan who won from the same seat in 2011 has not been nominated to contest the polls as he has had two terms.
The very fact that the outcome, this time at the Mattanur constituency, is not under the cloud, the only question that’s going around is will she be able to break the victory margin of over 50,000 votes.
When asked about her new constituency, Shailaja with a beaming smile said enough for all to understand. The Health Minister is indeed sitting pretty and can use her star status for the good of other Left candidates.
This time for the Left, one of their all-time star campaigners in the past two decades, now 97-year old V.S.Achuthanandan, in all likelihood is going to remain indoors, even though the other day he had taken his Covid vaccine.
It is not clear, if the CPI-M will parade the nonagenarian. In that case Shailaja and not Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, would be the Left’s star campaigner.
Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from IANS service.