THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CPM has decided to explore all options and keep its doors open in view of the internal revolt in Congress following the candidate selection for the Palakkad byelection. The CPM state secretariat met online and decided to wait for one or two days before finalising its candidate for Palakkad. Owing to its declared position, the party leadership has not approached rebel Congress leader P Sarin. However, the party has sent feelers to him. Before the revolt in Congress camp, the CPM had zeroed in on K Binumol, Palakkad district panchayat president, as its candidate for Palakkad, and former MLA U R Pradeep for Chelakkara.
The CPM leadership is of the view that the party and LDF should use all possible options to come out of the third position it fell in the last assembly election in Palakkad. “We will watch and assess the situation as it develops,” a senior leader told TNIE.
“If a favourable situation arises, we will definitely evaluate it and make a decision,” he said. CPM calculates that the internal revolt in Congress has helped the party and the government politically. “The suicide of Kannur ADM and its fallout had pushed the CPM to the back foot. However, rumblings in the Congress have altered the political climate,” the CPM leader said.
The leadership thinks that the new developments in Palakkad have instilled confidence among the cadres. However, the CPM is facing a new political challenge in Palakkad. The party did want to garner Congress votes and at the same it did not want the BJP to win the poll.
“This is a peculiar situation. All of us know that Congress would lose some votes because of the internal issues. This gives us a chance to come to second place or even become winners. If we do not win, we don’t want the BJP to emerge winners,” a CPM secretariat member told TNIE.
According to the CPM, this time the BJP will not be able to retain the 32% vote share it got in 2021. The surge in vote share then was due to E Sreedharan’s candidature, the party feels. “BJP vote percentage will fall considerably this time.
Likewise, Congress’ vote share will also come down from 38% . Our percentage will increase from 26 recorded in 2021. We do not think all negative votes will be polled against Congress. CPM and BJP will get some of them. The rest will go to Congress,” a CPM leader from Palakkad told TNIE.