Published Mar 19, 2026 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Mar 19, 2026 | 8:00 AM
A post from CPI(M) Malappuram District Committee following V Abdurahiman's candidature from Tanur.
In an election where the Left Democratic Front (LDF) is eyeing to script history under Pinarayi Vijayan, Tanur in Malappuram has quietly emerged as the most unusual Assembly constituency on the map: one with a candidate, but without a campaign.
Meet V Abdurahiman — sitting MLA, Minister for Minority Affairs, Wakf and Sports, and currently, perhaps the only candidate in Kerala who seems to be observing the election from a safe social distance.
Days after being announced as the LDF’s independent nominee, Abdurahiman remains conspicuously absent on the campaign circuit.
No roadshows, no poster blitz, not even a ceremonial “campaign begins” selfie.
In a season where even first-time candidates sprint across wards like marathon runners, Tanur’s incumbent has chosen stillness and has not even pressed “start.”
The CPI(M) district committee did its bit — dutiful posts, formal announcements, the usual digital drumroll. But the candidate himself? Silent. Party workers reportedly tried calling. Leaders reportedly tried reaching out.
But the candidate remains in incognito mode.
The official explanation is as predictable as it is polite: health reasons. A couple of days’ rest, the minister’s office assured, and the campaign would begin. Political Kerala, seasoned in reading between lines, is not entirely convinced because there is a backstory.
Word in Malappuram’s political corridors is that Abdurahiman had little appetite for a Tanur re-run. The constituency has not exactly been a comfort zone for him.
In 2016, he won by 4,918 votes — respectable, but not overwhelming. In 2021, that cushion shrank dramatically to just 982 votes against IUML’s PK Firos.
This time, the UDF has fielded PK Navas, a firebrand youth leader and current face of the Muslim Students Federation, raising the stakes further.
Sources say Abdurahiman had quietly indicated a preference for Tirur instead — a move that never materialised. The party, sticking to its arithmetic, sent him back to Tanur. The result: a candidate who, at least for now, seems to be protesting by perfecting the art of political invisibility.
For a constituency that already delivered a close shave, the stakes are sharper.
Meanwhile, the CPI(M) Malappuram District Committee has dutifully posted about his candidature online — perhaps hoping digital presence might compensate for physical absence.
Meanwhile, “background talks” of shifting him to Tirur continue to float through party corridors, adding a layer of suspense to what is already an unusual episode.
With polling scheduled for 9 April, time is the one resource no candidate can afford to waste. Yet in Tanur, time seems to be on pause.
An election without noise is rare. A candidate without a campaign? Even rarer.
For now, Tanur waits — after all, it is not every day that an election produces a candidate who hasn’t quite shown up to his own contest.
