P.V. Anvar blames UDF for poll defeat in Beypore after Kozhikode DCC chief admits ‘faulty candidate selection’

Over three-and-a-half months after the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) bagged 12 of the 13 seats in the Assembly elections in Kozhikode district of Keralam, a controversy has broken out over a statement by Koyilandy MLA and district Congress committee (DCC) president K. Praveenkumar related to the defeat of P.V. Anvar, the UDF-backed Independent, in Beypore.

P.A. Mohamed Riyas, former Minister and a State secretariat member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), had emerged victorious from the constituency with a margin of 7,487 votes. It was Mr. Riyas’ second Assembly poll win from there. In the 2021 elections, he had defeated the UDF’s P.M. Niyas by a margin of 28,747 votes.

Addressing a public meeting at Keezhariyur near Koyilandy recently, Mr. Praveenkumar said that had the candidate selection [in Beypore] “not gone wrong”, the UDF could have won all the 13 Assembly constituencies in Kozhikode. “We now realise that we could have registered a cent per cent victory in Kozhikode if anyone had contested there either on a hand symbol [of the Congress] or the ladder symbol [of the Indian Union Muslim League, a UDF ally].”

Anvar’s stance

Mr. Anvar soon shared a video of these remarks on Facebook with a post criticising the Congress leadership in the district, though he did not name anybody in it. The former Nilambur MLA pointed that people in “responsible positions” were seen publicly admitting who were “behind his defeat”.

“When the people and comrades of Beypore stood with me, those who should have supported me tried to defeat me,” Mr. Anvar said in the post.

“When the current Chief Minister said during an election campaign that Beypore would get a gift if Anvar gets elected, did some ministerial aspirants lose their sleep? This needs to be inspected,” he said.

Mr. Anvar also highlighted that he was “at the forefront” of raising allegations against the incumbent Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan and his family members, which was a major campaign theme that helped the UDF get 102 in the elections.

The former MLA could not be reached for further comments.

A non-issue: Praveenkumar

However, Mr. Praveenkumar told The Hindu on Tuesday that the controversy was being generated over a “non-issue”. He claimed that his attempt was never to personally target Mr. Anvar.

Mr. Praveenkumar said he was “merely expressing the feelings of the party workers”, adding that what he meant was that had Mr. Anvar contested on the party symbol, even he could have won from Beypore.

The Congress leader maintained that he had a cordial relationship with Mr. Anvar and that there were “no misunderstandings” between them.

The UDF local leadership had been earlier accused of playing a key role in Mr. Anvar’s defeat in Beypore. Mr. Anvar allegedly did not get the expected votes from many UDF strongholds. It was also pointed out that he polled fewer votes compared with the total number of votes garnered by UDF candidates in the 2025 local body polls, in Beypore.

Though the Congress had declared constituting an inquiry panel into these allegations, it reportedly did not make any headway.