Hectic parleys on in 3 major Fronts in Kerala
The CPM, Congress and BJP-led Fronts in Kerala are engaged in hectic deliberations to finalise their candidates for coming Assembly polls.
The district leadership of the CPM has almost finalised the list of prospective candidates in all 14 districts. Barring some leaders, the names of most sitting MLAs including senior ministers have been recommended by the district leadership for the coming polls.
The issue of exemption for four and five time legislators will be taken up at the CPM state committee meeting on March 5.
The No 2 party in the LDF, CPI which contested 27 seats in 2016 Assembly polls is likely to get 25 seats this time. Some of the seats of the CPI are likely to be given to the new allies. Similarly, the number of CPM seats will also come down to accommodate the alliance partners.
The CPI leadership has asked the district councils to prepare a panel of candidates in each district.
The panel will be discussed at the state executive meeting. Subsequently the final list will be announced.
The Congress-led UDF is also in the process of finalising the candidates. Congress election committee meeting held in Thiruvananthapuram decided not to field sitting MPs in the coming polls. The members of the committee submitted separate recommendations about candidates to the top leaders.
KPCC president Mullapally Ramachandran has decided to opt out the elections this time as he wants to concentrate on the campaigning of the UDF, However, the final decision in his case will be taken by the high command.
Many veteran leaders including P.J. Kurien, P.C. Thomas, V.M. Sudheeran have requested the leadership to give tickets to young leaders.
The BJP is conducting its seat sharing and candidate level discussions on the sidelines of the Vijaya Yatra of party state president K. Surendran. The BJP and its allies in the NDA are likely to finalise the candidates by next week. The bulk of seats will be contested by BJP. All top leaders of the party are likely to be in the fray this time.
Union minister V. Murlaeedharan has said he would contest if there is any direction from the central. “Metroman” E. Sreedharan will be fielded from Thrippunithura or Palakkad.