KOCHI: With the local body poll round the corner, political parties are in search of high-profile women candidates for the Kochi Mayor’s post. For this term, the City will have a woman Mayor. While many names have surfaced from the Congress, the CPM is yet to come up with any names.
Reliable sources close to the party told DC that the CPM was focusing on preparing a panel of candidates rather than projecting a single person for the coveted post.
Poornima Narayan, a social activist and professor of SCMS College, and Prof. Monamma Kokkad, former Women’s Commission member, and a couple of women advocates and college professors from pro-Left families are the names doing the rounds.
Political parties are in a hurry to identify candidates as they are running short of time. The elections for the local bodies in Ernakulam district will be held on November 5 and the last date for filing nominations is October 14.
Monamma Kokkad, who was instrumental in banning smoking in public places, has been active on women’s issues.
The party might field Poornima from Elamkulam division, the sitting seat of the LDF where Sojan Antony defeated independent candidate former IAS official P.C Cyriac.
However, in previous elections, the party preferred to field a Christian candidate in the division with an eye on Catholic voters.
Meanwhile, party sources said that the winning possibility is the foremost criteria for selection of candidates.
“No other factors will be considered while finalising the candidate list. The names will be discussed and approved at the area committee and district committee level” sources said.
At the same time, some of the prominent councillors in the present council including Adv. N.A Shafeeq, Adv. M. Anil Kumar, K.N Sunil Kumar might not contest this time.
Opposition leader in the council KJ Jacob might be in the fray but has to contest from some other neighbouring divisions as his Gandhi Nagar division is reserved for women.
