Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress factions are bent on fighting it out though the UDF had sensed an advantage in the elections. With CWC member Oommen Chandy managing to bag the seats for his loyalists, Opposition Lea-der Ramesh Chennithala left for Kochi from Delhi in a huff on Monday.
Though the AICC has not officially announced the candidates in the four elusive seats, sources said that Shanimol Usman will contest from Alappuzha and Adoor Prakash from Attingal. Chandy loyalist T. Siddique, Kozhikode DCC president, will get Wayanad in all probability. Efforts were on to convince KPCC president Mullapally Ramachandran to contest from Vatakara and create a hatrick.
“Though the KPCC had claimed earlier that candidates will be chosen on merit, Chandy resorted to pressure tactics and ensured seats for Benny Behanan (Chalakudy), Dean Kuriakose (Idukki) and Siddique (Wayanad),” said a senior Congress MLA. Chennithala got Ernakulam for Hibi Eden, but failed to secure Idukki for Joseph Vazhakkan. Though Adoor Prakash originally belongs to the Chennithala camp, he is acceptable to Chandy. Dis-sent voices may be heard in public in the coming days. The Congress high command had received dozens of fax messages from the state against the proposed candidates in Wayanad and Vatakara.
Wayanad Lok Sabha seat that was formed in 2009 after delimitation has been a Congress stronghold. In the 2009 LS election, Che-nnithala had deputed M. I. Shanavas to Wayanad from Kochi, and he won it defeating CPI’s M. Rahmatullah by over 1.53 lakh votes. Later in 2014, Shanavas’s margin came down to 20, 870 against CPI’s Sathyan Mokeri. The Chandy camp is confident of Siddique pulling an easy victory as he was voted as the best DCC president in the secret survey initiated by the AICC leadership.
