Congress fails to crack list, 91 to contest, names out on Sunday

Express News Service
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Unlike expected, the Congress did not announce its list of candidates for the state assembly polls on Friday, but said  it would contest in 91 seats and had finalised names of 81. The list will be released on Sunday after finalising candidates for the remaining 10 contentious seats, including Nemom.Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala said no MP will contest this time, thus quashing the rumours about Shashi Tharoor contesting from Nemom. It also ended the chances of K Muraleedharan and Rajya Sabha MP K C Venugopal entering the state poll fray. None of the leaders will contest from two seats. Oommen Chandy will contest from Puthuppally again, it is learnt.

The names of 81 candidates were cleared at the hour-long meeting of central election committee (CEC) chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi  in New Delhi.A senior leader told TNIE that apart from Nemom, the remaining contentious seats are Kundara, Kollam, Aranmula, Kanjirappally, Tripunithura, Pattambi, Nilambur, Tavanur and Kalpetta.

The Congress leadership also announced the allocation of seats to the UDF allies.While the Muslim League will contest in 27 seats, Kerala Congress Joseph faction has been allocated 10. While RSP got five seats, two went to Nationalist Congres Kerala and one each to Janata Dal, CMP and Kerala Congress (Jacob).

“If RMP’s K K Rema contests from Vadakara, we’ll part with one seat,” Chennithala said.Even when the state leadership said they had taken a unanimous call on the 81 seats, there is growing dissent over the way Mullappally jumped the gun on Nemom. It is reliably learnt that prior to the CEC meeting, a peeved K Sudhakaran, MP, vented his anger at Chennithala, Chandy and Mullappally over the list by squeezing a paper and throwing it at the trio’s face. 

Uncertainty over Nemom

“The official announcement of the Congress candidates in the 91 seats will be announced on Sunday in New Delhi. The discussion on the 10 seats will continue. An understanding has not been reached on Nemom seat,” said Mullappally. Chennithala said Mullappally would stay back in New Delhi while Chandy would return on Sunday morning. “I can vouch that Nemom will not see a weak candidate. There is no confusion over finalising of the candidate list. Once it is officially released, you will all know what caused the delay,” said Chennithala.