Kerala Assembly polls: Congress still undecided on six remaining seats

The discussion for finalizing the six remaining Congress candidates failed to arrive at a consensus. The Congress has yet to announce candidates for Vattiyurkavu, Nilambur, Pattambi, Kalpetta, Kundara, and Tavanur.

KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran while announcing the candidate list on Sunday had said that the remaining names will be declared by Monday evening.

P C Vishnunath was initially considered for the Kundara seat but there was a huge protest against the plan. Now, he is likely to be fielded in Vattiyurkavu. However, it is understood that local leaders are still in opposition.


In Kundara, Kallada Ramesh is rigorously lobbying for the seat. In Kalpetta, former state Youth Congress president T Siddique is being considered. However, the Wayanad district committee is reportedly not happy with the decision as he does not belong to the district. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala reached Wayanad on Monday to meet local leaders.

Meanwhile, in Nilambur, VV Prakash is the frontrunner, but Aryadan Shoukath is not ready to give up the seat. Even though the Congress leadership offered Pattambi instead, Shoukath, who had contested unsuccessfully from Nilambur in the last election against P V Anvar, turned it down.

The Congress had decided to field Riyas Mukkoli, the Youth Congress state vice-president against minister K T Jaleel. But he has refused the offer made by the KPCC leadership. “The discussions are going on and the final list can be expected by Tuesday morning,’’ said AICC general secretary KC Venugopal.

An uphill task in Dharmadom

After Nemom, state Congress leadership is faced with the uphill task of finding a suitable candidate in Dharmadom against CM Pinarayi Vijayan. The party is forced to find a heavy weight since the BJP has fielded its senior leader CK Padmanabhan. Though Congress top leadership had a discussion with several senior leaders to take up the task, none of them agreed.

UDF had given the seat to Forward Bloc and had asked its national secretary G Devarajan to contest. But, Forward Bloc central committee decided against it.