Thiruvananthapuram: Congress to focus on winnability

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The AICC leadership played spoilsport with the ploy of the KPCC president Mullapally Ramachandran, Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala and AICC general secretary Oommen Chandy who were hoping to zero in on the candidature to Vattiyoorkavu, Konni, Aroor and Ernakulam by-election seats among themselves. With the intervention of the Congress high command, the KPCC leadership has been forced to call a meeting of the election committee followed by the UDF meeting on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the KPCC leadership took a final call on not to swap Vattiyoorkavu and Aroor Assembly seats among the ‘A’ and ‘I’ groups.

The trio spoke to former Vattiyoorkavu MLA K. Muraleedharan who went on to become the Vatakara MP. Muraleedharan maintained to the leaders that “winnability” should be considered while considering the candidature. In the current scenario, former Kollam MP N. Peethambara Kurup is most likely to emerge as the Congress candidate from Vattiy-oorkavu.

“But now the fight is on for the Konni by-election seat where the Pathanamthitta DCC leadership has openly come against former Konni MLA Adoor Prakash’s loyalist, Robin Peter emerging as the by-election candidate”, said a Congress MP.

Adoor Prakash maintained that an Ezhava leader need not be fielded from Konni where a Christian leader can emerge victorious. It should be recalled that Konni Assembly constituency has got a majority of Ezhava voters followed by Nair community.

“But the danger is that already NSS general secretary G. Sukumaran Nair has iterated that a Hindu candidate should be fielded from Konni. It should be recalled how the NSS had played spoilsport in the Chengannur byelection. Similarly, the minority community is also going to be antagonised about the candidature in Aroor,” added the Congress MP to this newspaper.

The KPCC leadership also decided to provide the Aroor by-election seat to Ezhava community as the constituency has got 60 per cent – 70 per cent of voters from the said community. This action has resulted in seat aspirant, Shanimol Usman losing the ticket during the fag end of the candidature. Currently, two Ezhava youth leaders from Aroor, K. Rajeevan, Alappuzha DCC leader and former district panchayat leader and S. Rajesh, Youth Congress Assembly president are being considered to appease the Ezhava community. A final decision on the candidature is expected to emerge on Wednesday after the KPCC election committee meeting and the UDF liaison committee meeting.