THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: While the CPM and BJP have come out with their lists of candidates in the 100 wards under Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, the Congress has not yet completed its procedure to identify right candidates. So far, candidates have been identified only in 40 wards.
Hectic parleys are on to finalise the seat-sharing mechanism between the Congress and the UDF allies.
Be it the local bodies, Assembly or Lok Sabha elections, the Congress has always been at the last to come up with its list of candidates.
The main reason for the delay would always be arriving at a consensus on the seat-sharing mechanism among the UDF allies.
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This time also, things are not much different. Thiruvananthapuram DCC president Neyyattinkara Sanal and UDF district chairman P K Venugopal have been working on a seat-sharing mechanism which is most likely to be completed by Monday. M Murali, KPCC general secretary who holds charge of the local bodies, told TNIE that the selection of candidates is a long process which is done democratically.
“The KPCC leadership has decided not to intervene in the candidates’ selection as the ball is in the court of the ward committees. When it comes to the candidates for corporation elections, the divisional committees of ward and booth-level committees have to take a call. This is because in certain wards there will be more than 6,000 voters and the divisional committees will be consulted,” said Murali.
The Congress’ candidates to the 26-member Thiruvananthapuram district panchayat have been finalised. But the official announcement will be done only by Tuesday along with the list of candidates in the 100 wards of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. The number of seats earmarked for the UDF allies is also yet to be finalised. Murali told TNIE that the list will be announced with the concurrence of the KPCC president. The notification to the local bodies election is scheduled for November 12. The Election Commission will also start accepting the nomination from the candidates on the same day.