THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CPM state secretariat will consider the draft candidate lists submitted by the district secretariats for the forthcoming assembly elections soon.
The party’s candidate selection process began with a meeting of the Thiruvananthapuram district secretariat on Wednesday. The meeting was held in the presence of state secretary M V Govindan.
The secretariat meetings in other districts will be held in the coming days. The party has conveyed to various district leaderships that the two-term system introduced in the 2021 assembly election need not be strictly followed.
In the Thiruvananthapuram district secretariat meeting, Govindan said that if a candidate has good chances of win, he could be actively considered for allotting party tickets even if he has completed two terms.
“The state secretariat, after the first round of scrutiny, will send the proposals submitted by the district leaderships back to them seeking more clarification, if needed, in some seats,” said a CPM state secretariat member. “It may also ask the district leadership to make alterations in the list,” he said.
In line with the state leadership’s directive, the Thiruvananthapuram district secretariat unanimously proposed CPM’s 10 sitting MLAs for another term, including district secretary V Joy. No new names were considered for any seats.
Though there were apprehensions in the meeting about the winning chances of the party in five assembly constituencies — Attingal, Neyyattinkara, Nemom, Kazhakootam and Vamanapuram — the committee came to the conclusion that sitting MLAs should be allotted tickets. When the state secretary pointed out the issue of fielding Joy again, members argued that his presence was unavoidable.