THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The groupism in the Congress is set to come to the fore with the Election Commission anno-uncing the Assembly by-elections in Vattiyoo-rkavu, Konni, Aroor, Er-nakulam and Manjes-waram on October 21.
While the ‘A’ and ‘I’ groups will swap Aroor and Vattiyoorkavu, Ko-nni and Ernakulam bel-ong to the ‘I’ group led by Ramesh Chennithala. Manjeswaram is held by the Muslim League.
‘A’ group leader Tham-panoor Ravi may contest from Vattiyoorkavu and ‘I’ group nominee Sha-nimol Usman from Aro-or. A senior Congress MP told DC that Ramesh Chennithala and Oommen Chandy were keen to swap the seats.
“Shanimol Usman had performed well in the Aroor Assembly segme-nt during the Lok Sabha elections. The minority community will also be appeased,” he said.
Other seat hopefuls include Thiruvanantha-puram DCC president Neyyatinkara Sanal, former Kollam MP N. Pe-ethambara Kurup, current member of Kerala State Human Rights Commission K. Moha-nkumar, KPCC secretary Manacaud Suresh and former Youth Com-mission chairman R. V. Rajesh. AICC secretary P. C. Vishnunath, who also wanted the seat, was rejected by the local leaders.
AICC secretary P. C. Vshnunath walking aw-ay with the Vattiyoo-rkavu ticket cannot be ruled out . But there has been widespread allegation that he had not nursed his previous constituency, Chengannur which saw the Left walking away with the seat.
K. Muraleedharan MP, who represented Vattiy-oorkavu, will have a say in the selection of the candidate.
Former Konni MLA and Attingal MP Adoor Prakash has backed Ro-bin Peter, grama panchayat president of Pramadam in Pathan-amthitta, for Konni. Adoor Prakash had won the seat consecutively in 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016.
The other aspirants are Elzabeth Abu, development standing committee chairperson of Pathanamthitta district panchayat, KPCC secretary Pazhakulam Mad-hu and former Pathan-amthitta DCC president O. C. Mohanraj.
The Congress may field T. J. Vinod, DCC president, in Ernaku-lam. If he becomes the candidate, the posts of DCC president and deputy mayor will fall vacant.
