KOCHI: At a time the Congress and BJP are planning to field senior leaders in the polls to the Kochi Corporation, the CPM has decided to field candidates who have no prior experience mostly . According to sources in the CPM district leadership, nearly 80 per cent of the candidates in the fray for the corporation elections will be new faces. “The district leadership wants to infuse fresh blood into the council by putting up new faces in the elections.
Ever since the discussion started within the party, prime importance has been given to the persons who have the calibre to highlight the issues faced by the public. We have selected a few candidates who had performed impressively in student politics. We finalised the candidates more or less last week itself. Since some procedures need to be followed, the list will be announced in a day or two,” said the source.
Interestingly, the CPM district leadership has put an age bar during the selection of candidates. “Some experienced candidates are required for the key posts such as mayor and standing committee chairpersons. Except for such persons, almost all our candidates are below the age of 45 and this will help us have an energetic council,” said the source.
Women’s participation
According to the leaders, over 50 per cent of the candidates are women. “In Thiruvananthapuram, the party has selected 46 woman candidates out of the total 70 seats. Even in Kochi, three general seats will be given to woman candidates. This means that women will be in the fray in more than the 50 per cent seats reserved for women in the corporation. The political atmosphere in Kochi Corporation limits, we feel, favours the LDF,” said another source in the party.
Meanwhile, it is learnt that the district secretariat meeting held on Tuesday decided to field M Anilkumar, former chairperson of the town planning committee, as the CPM’s mayoral candidate. According to the source, though former mayor C M Dinesh Mani and C K Manisankar, who had a stint as the deputy mayor, were on top of the list of probable mayoral candidates, the party decided to field a younger candidate.
“Though there was a plan to field state and district committee members, the party decided against it. If LDF comes to power, Anilkumar will be the mayor,” said the source.
40 women contestants
Only 16 experienced candidates
M Anilkumar will be most experienced candidate