A. M. Ariff

Ariff was born on 24 May 1964 in the Alappuzha district of Kerala as the eldest son of Abdul Majid, a police officer, and Nabeesa (Thankamma). He completed his schooling from YMCA LP School in Alappuzha, Leo XIIIth School, Alappuzha and ECEK Union School at Kuthiyathodu. Then he completed Pre Degree from S.D. College, Alappuzha and BSc from S.N. College, Cherthala. After earning a law degree from Law Academy Law College, Thiruvananthapuram, he practised as a lawyer in Cherthala.

He married Dr. Shahnaz Begum who runs obesity and weight management clinics at Alappuzha and Ernakulam. The couple has two children - Salman and Riswana.

Ariff began his active political life through student politics as a BSc degree student at Cherthala S.N. College where he was elected as College Union magazine editor and later, as chairman of the union. He subsequently held a series of positions in SFI  as Cherthala area president, Alappuzha district secretary and finally became a state committee member of the student wing of the party. He later became a state committee member of DYFI, the youth wing of CPI(M).[1]

During his student years at Cherthala SN College, his father, a police officer, was allegedly transferred from Cherthala to Kainakary because the police department took exception to Ariff's involvement in political activities while his family was living in the police quarters there. His family was evicted from the police quarters following a direct order from the Superintendent of Police.

While he was an LLB student at Law Academy Law College in Thiruvananthapuram, Ariff became a member of the Alappuzha district committee of the party. In the district, council presided by G. Sudhakaran, we worked along with senior leaders like N.P. Thandar, Adv. Janardhana Prabhu and Muhammad Ali Sahib. During this time, he was also selected as a member of the Kerala University Senate.

Arif was arrested and remanded to police custody along with 26 students for leading an agitation for students' travel concession.

After becoming a party member in 1986, he rose through the ranks of the party as member of Cherthala Town East local committee and Cherthala area committee, subsequently becoming a member of the Alappuzha district committee in 1996. When he was elected to the state legislative assembly in 2006, he had been working as Cherthala area secretary of the party for six years. During his stint as area secretary, he led an agitation demanding a judicial investigation into the Muthanga shooting incident in which Adivasis were shot dead by the police. In a police lathi charge during the protests, he sustained serious injury to the spine and thigh bone and had to be hospitalized.

In 2006, Ariff was elected as a member representing the Aroor constituency in the Kerala legislative assembly with a brilliant electoral triumph over the sitting agriculture minister and veteran politician K.R. Gowri Amma. He won by a margin of 4650 votes. In the 2011 assembly election, he was re-elected for a second term from the same constituency, defeating sitting MLA and Alapuzha DCC president Adv. A. A. Shukkoor with a margin of 16850 votes. In the 2016 assembly election, he followed up the victory for a third successive term with a huge margin of 38519 votes against UDF candidate Adv. C.R. Jayaprakash, who was KPCC general secretary and UDF Alappuzha district secretary.