The Kozhikode Lok Sabha constituency has an affinity towards outsiders, candidates from other districts or States, if its track record is any indication. Ever since the constituency came into being, native candidates have represented it in Parliament less than five times.
The Kozhikode constituency consisted of Balussery, Koduvally, Kozhikode-1, Kozhikode-2 and Thiruvambadi Assembly constituencies in Kozhikode district and Kalpetta and Sulthan Bathery constituencies in Wayanad district. But after the delimitation in 2009, Kalpetta and Sulthan Bathery became part of Wayanad constituency while Balussery, Kunnamangalam, Beypore, Koduvally, Elathur, Kozhikode North and Kozhikode South remained in the Kozhikode constituency.
K.A. Damodara Menon, who represented Kozhikode in the Parliament the very first time, from 1952 to 1957, was born in Ernakulam and lived most of his life in Thiruvananthapuram. It was his association with K.P. Kesava Menon and the Mathrubhumi publication that brought him to Kozhikode.
Though his successors K.P. Kuttikrishnan and C.H. Mohammed Koya were Kozhikode natives, they were followed by Ebrahim Sulaiman Sait for two consecutive terms. Sait was born and brought up in Bengaluru and had no links with Kerala.
E.K. Imbichi Bava, who represented Kozhikode from 1980 to 1984, was from Ponnani in neighbouring Malappuram district. His successor K.G. Adiyodi was a Kozhikode native.
Since K. Muraleedharan, son of former chief minister K. Karunakaran, took charge of Kozhikode in 1989, the constituency has constantly been in the hands of outstation candidates, except for one year when P. Sankaran represented it (1998-99).
K. Muraleedharan, who came from Kannur and Thiruvananthapuram, represented Kozhikode thrice and M.P. Veerendrakumar, who came from Wayanad, twice before the present MP M.K. Raghavan, a Kannur native, took over in 2009.
For the last quarter of a century, Kozhikode has favoured non-local candidates, though repeated terms made them as good as locals.
