THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Putting to an end speculations, CPI has finalised its 25 candidates for the Assembly polls with senior leader C Divakaran finally managing to find a berth in the list.
As many as 15 fresh faces would be among the candidates. Of the 27 seats from where CPI will contest, candidates in two constituencies - Manjeri and Eranad - will be decided in a day.
Of the seven sitting MLAs who have contested twice, six including Divakaran were given exemption in general norms and will be fielded again, while K Ajith will not be in the fray. V S Sunil Kumar and Divakaran were given different constituencies to contest this time.
Divakaran has been shifted to Nedumangad from Karunagappally while V S Sunil Kumar would be contesting from Thrissur instead of Kaipamangalam. Others - Mullakkara Ratnakaran, E S Bijimol, K Raju and P Thilothaman - retained their seats. Other sitting MLAs - V Sasi, Chittayam Gopakumar, Geetha Gopi, G S Jayalal, E Chandrasekharan and E K Vijayan - will be fielded from their sitting seats.
The candidate list has new faces like V R Sunil Kumar, son of former CPI leader V K Rajan, and AIYF state secretary K Rajan in addition to JNU student leader Mohammed Mohsin, who will contest from Pattambi. C K Asha will be the candidate from Vaikom, the sitting seat of K Ajith. The current list has four women candidates.
Former chief minister P K Vasudevan Nair’s daughter Sarada Mohan will contest from Paravur, where senior leader Pannian Raveendran lost last time. CPI Kollam district secretary R Ramachandran will contest from Karunagappally, the sitting seat of C Divakaran. As expected many senior leaders, including K E Ismayil and Binoy Viswam, will not be in the fray.
The state executive which met here in the morning discussed the candidature of C Divakaran in detail. Finally, the candidature was approved overcoming clear dissent from some leaders. According to sources, the move to grant exemptions in the general norms to many at a go, didn’t go down well in the executive.
Though Kollam district council was initially not interested in C Divakaran’s candidature, a decision in this regard was taken after the Thiruvananthapuram district council proposed his name.
A decision on Divakaran’s candidature gave way to differing opinions within the executive. However, it was finally decided to field him from Nedumangad.
There were some minor disputes over candidate selection in Mannarkad. It was finally decided that K P Suresh Raj, who lost from Pattambi seat last time, will be fielded from Mannarkad. Also, V S Sunil Kumar’s demand for Kaipamangalam seat was reportedly opposed by C N Jayadevan.
“Those who have contested twice were given exemption based on performance, of which, two were given different constituencies. Ajith’s candidature was not proposed by the district council. Decision on the other two candidates would be taken by Wednesday,” sources pointed out. K K Samad is expected to be the party candidate from Eranad.
The decisions by the state executive were approved by the state Council.