THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For the first time in the history of the Congress in the state, the party has come out with only one candidate each in at least 75 seats out of 90 seats the party would be contesting. This is something totally unheard of in the Congress.
The 15 Congress MPs have their task cut out where they have been asked to shoulder responsibilities in five Assembly constituencies in their Lok Sabha constituency.During the prelude to all elections, party ticket hopefuls and group nominees make a beeline before decision makers. But this time, such hopefuls are apprehensive and are trying out other options to get into the list of probables somehow. Currently, the AICC’s survey is in its third stage where March 5 is the cut-off date.
The first stage was held much ahead of Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala’s Aishwarya Kerala Yatra on the probable list of candidates. The second stage of the survey was held immediately after the yatra to gauge the candidates as well as the UDF’s chances. Following the Election Commission’s poll date announcement, the AICC team is in the third stage of assessment now. By the time the KPCC leadership submits its candidates’ list before the AICC in a week, they will be tallying it along with the survey list. A senior KPCC vice-president told TNIE that the survey team has zeroed in on a single name from the panel of candidates proposed by the three senior leaders of the KPCC leadership.
“The survey team has already come out with the name of just one candidate each, who has got winning chances, in more than 70 Assembly constituencies. There will not be a final candidate who has not got into the survey team’s list. But at the same time the AICC will not be solely depending on the outcome of the survey team alone as AICC secretaries’ report also stands crucial. On the final candidature, the ball is in the court of the AICC leadership comprising party president Sonia Gandhi and CWC leaders A K Antony and K C Venugopal”, said a KPCC vice-president.
The survey team’s findings will be correlated with the field reports of three AICC secretaries P V Mohan (Kasaragod, Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikode, Malappuram and Palakkad), Ivan D’Souza (Thrissur, Ernakulam, Idukki, Kottayam and Pathanamthitta) and P Viswanathan (Alappuzha, Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram). The discussions with UDF allies will be completed over phone within the next three days. Contrary to the earlier announcement that the UDF meeting will be held on Sunday, it has since been postponed to Wednesday.
Since Rahul Gandhi is the Wayanad MP, Venugopal has been entrusted to take care of Wayanad and also Alappuzha Lok Sabha constituencies. Alappuzha is the lone LS constituency to go in favour of the LDF.“All 15 MPs have been entrusted to take care of five Assembly constituencies in their LS constituency. Our role includes, addressing organisational lapses, if any, monitoring election campaign and also management of election work,” Chalakudy MP Benny Behanan told TNIE.