Karat Faisal, who won last time, faces defeat after contesting as Left independent

KOZHIKODE: Karat Faisal, a controversial industrialist, who contested polls as an independent candidate of the Left Front in Koduvally Muncipality, has been defeated. P P Moideen Kutty of the UDF won by 142 votes. Karat Faisal contested in south division of Koduvally Municipality. Last time he contested as an independent from Chundapuram Ward in Koduvally and won the polls. The LDF candidate did not get a single vote in Faisal's ward then. He was the councilor in Koduvally Municipality for the last six terms.

Karat Faisal's candidacy was a big controversy last time. Even before the seat-sharing talks began, his supporters had campaigned that Karat Faisal would contest as Left independent in the Chundappuram division. The LDF fielded Faisal as an independent candidate in line with that campaign.

However, the state leadership intervened when the decision to make a person detained by customs and questioned in the gold smuggling case a candidate, stoked a controversy. Subsequently, the LDF fielded O P Abdul Rasheed, an INL state committee member who is close to Faisal, after withdrawing support for Faisal, as an independent candidate. However, Karat Faisal, who filed his nomination papers just before the deadline for submitting nomination papers, captured the UDF's sitting seat last time.