Congress completes Kerala seat allocations
TRIVANDRUM: The opposition Congress party in Kerala has finished its long-drawn exercise of finalising candidates for national elections, naming the last but crucial four.
The surprise choice was that of former state unit chief K Muraleedharan to defend its Vadakara seat vacated by the incumbent, Mullappally Ramachandran.
He will take on Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM strongman P Jayarajan, who is out on bail ater being named for two political murders.
Muraleedharan is the son of the late Congress leader K Karunakaran, who was the state’s chief minister twice.
Hehadrepresentedtheneighbouringkozhikode parliamentary constituency thrice. Currently, he serves Vatiyoorkavu here in the state legislature and is one of the two working presidents of the party in Kerala.
“The fight is between ideologies, between democratic values and politics of violence. I don’t look who my opponent is,” he said, exuding confidence to retain the seat.
“I was amid a campaign for Dr Shashi Tharoor when (senior leader) Oommen Chandy asked if I’m ready to take up the challenge. I immediately agreed.”
The party’s screening commitee held in New Delhi also cleared the names of T Siddique (Wayanad), Shanimol Usman (Alappuzha) and Adoor Prakash (Atingal).
Prakash is a legislator from Konni in Pathanamthita. He’ll challenge the siting lawmaker A Sampath of the CPM, who is completing his second term.
The other two had never won an election, either to the state legislature of the national parliament.
Usman replaces KC Venugopal whom Congress president Rahul Gandhi had elevated to the party’s highest decision-making body, Congress Working Commitee, and appointed as the general secretary in charge of the organisational maters.
She will challenge AM Arif of the CPM, which leads the state’s ruling Let Democratic Front (LDF).
Siddique, who is the party’s chief in Kozhikode district, is pited against PP Suneer, the LDF candidate fielded by the Communist Party of India (CPI).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is yet to finalise its candidates, though former Mizoram governor Kummanam Rajasekharan had started his campaign in the state capital against Dr Tharoor and CPI’S C Divakaran.