THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CPM leadership has finalised its preliminary list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls. The state committee, which met here on Sunday, gave its nod for the candidature of V S Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan in Malampuzha and Dharmadom respectively, but made several crucial changes to the list of probables submitted by the district committees.
The state committee decided against fielding Ernakulam district secretary P Rajeev, who was reportedly tipped to contest from Tripunithura. The decision was attributed to Rajeev's relatively short tenure as a district secretary. Two other district secretaries - V N Vasavan, who was tipped to contest from either Etumanoor or Kottayam, and Saji Cherian, who was looked upon as a probable for Chengannoor - will not be in the fray.
In the meantime, Thiruvananthapuram district secretary Kadakampally Surendran, Wayanad district secretary C K Saseendran and Thrissur secretary A C Moideen will contest. The state committee also reportedly gave its nod for the following candidates: T N Seema (Vattiyoorkavu), V Sivankutty (Nemom), B Sathyan (Attingal), I B Satish (Kattakada), D K Murali (Vamanapuram), Raju Abraham (Ranni) and P Biju (Aruvikkara). The candidates for Parassala and Neyyatinkara and some constituencies in central Travancore are yet to be finalised.
Sitting MLAs S Sharma, Saju Paul, Sreeramakrishnan and G Sudhakaran, who were cleared for battle, have been allowed to retain their constituencies. State Secretariat members A K Balan (Tharoor), E P Jayarajan (Mattannur) and T M Thomas Isaac (Alappuzha) - also sitting MLAs - too will be in the fray. Two other Secretariat members M M Mani (Udumbanchola) and T P Ramakrishnan (Perambra) also have found a place in the Sunday's list.
In certain constituencies, the district secretariats were asked to come up with a single candidate.