In a first, Alankode Leelakrishnan was fielded by the Communist Party of India (CPI) as a candidate for the Kerala elections. Known in the Malayalam literary space as a poet and cultural activist, his entry marks a shift from being part of the Left movement to active politics.
Contesting from the Thrissur constituency, Leelakrishnan is up against the BJP’s Padmaja Venugopal and the Congress’s Rajan J. Pallan.
The Thrissur Assembly constituency has seen closely contested elections in recent years. In the 2021 Kerala Assembly elections, CPI’s P. Balachandran won the seat by a narrow margin of 946 votes, defeating Congress candidate Padmaja Venugopal.
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5 Facts about Alankode Leelakrishnan
- Alankode Leelakrishnan, aged 66, is a graduate with a B.Com degree from MES Ponnani College under Calicut University, completed in 1981. A pensioner by profession, he has declared assets worth ₹2.93 crore, with no liabilities and no criminal cases as per his election affidavit.
- Alankode Leelakrishnan began his career as an officer with Kerala Gramin Bank, while also developing an early interest in literature. He started writing poems and articles during his school years and first gained public recognition as a storyteller.
- Leelakrishnan has contributed to Malayalam cinema by writing stories, scripts, and songs for films such as Ekantham. He has also served as a judge on the poetry-based reality show Mambazham, which aired on Kairali People TV.
- Leelakrishnan’s entry into active politics marks a shift from his literary and cultural work, as he stepped into the fray as a candidate of the Communist Party of India (CPI). He has also expressed that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) will retain the Thrissur constituency in the upcoming election.
- The Thrissur Assembly constituency has seen shifts in political control over the years. The Congress held the seat in 2011, with Therambil Ramakrishnan defeating CPI’s P. Balachandran by a margin of 16,169 votes. However, the CPI regained the constituency in 2016, when V.S. Sunilkumar won against Congress candidate Padmaja Venugopal by 6,987 votes.