After humbling the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) in its own bastion in the 2006 Assembly elections, the CPI (M) had confidently declared that Malappuram had turned red.
It sounded true at that time because many League citadels like Kuttippuram, Tirur, Mankada and Perinthalmanna crumbled before the Left upsurge.
The flex board photograph of an aged Muslim man marching forward with the red flag in his hand conveyed the mood in the CPI (M) camp.
But the CPI(M) failed to sustain the momentum it created in 2006. All its efforts to move further were thwarted by the IUML, which slowly gained the lost ground through systematic work.
A resurgent IUML mended walls with the Kanthapuram faction Sunnis even at the cost of inviting the wrath of the Sunni faction supporting the party.
Five years down the line, many of the outfits formed against the IUML have suffered hugely. The results of Lok Sabha and local body polls have proved IUML is perfectly in saddle. The only worry for the IUML is the resurfacing of the ice cream sex racket case.