THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Disregarding voices of dissent within the party, the CPM on Wednesday announced its candidates for the assembly elections. Eight ministers in the current cabinet, including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, are among 23 sitting MLAs who have found a place in the list of candidates released for 83 of the 85 seats where CPM members or party-supported independents will be contesting.
Interestingly, 33 sitting MLAs — including five ministers — are not in the fray. Instead, 38 fresh faces are set to contest. Eight state secretariat members too are in the list.
Candidates for Manjeshwar, where local party units raised opposition over the choice of K R Jayananda, and Devikulam will be announced later. Party state secretary-in-charge A Vijayaraghavan said various winning factors forced the party to stick to its stand and efforts will be taken to convince the workers who have concerns over certain candidates. Nine are party-backed independents including Higher Education Minister K T Jaleel, who will contest from Tavanur.
The prominent names missing are Finance Minister Thomas Isaac, Public Works Minister G Sudhakaran and Industries Minister E P Jayarajan, keeping in tune with the CPM state secretariat decision not to consider those who had contested and won for two consecutive terms.
Despite stiff opposition from local cadre, CITU leader P Nandakumar will contest from Ponnani. Similar is the case with the Kuttiyadi seat, which the state leadership decided to give to the new ally, Kerala Congress (M).
CPM to field 12 women
DYFI national president and Pinarayi’s son-in-law P A Mohammed Riyas is the candidate for the Beypore seat. Mahila Association central committee member and party secretary in-charge Vijayaraghavan’s wife R Bindu will contest from Irinjalakuda.
There are 12 woman candidates, including Health Minister K K Shailaja and Fisheries Minister J Mercykutty Amma. Architect Shelna Nishad Ali, daughter-in-law of six-time Congress MLA Mohammed Ali is slated to seek mandate from Aluva while singer Daleema will contest from Aroor.
Pinarayi, 75, is the oldest in the list while 27-year-old SFI leader Sachin Dev is the youngest. Four candidates are below the age of 30 while 24 of them are above 60. There are two doctorate holders, two MBBS degree holders and an architect among the CPM candidates. While 14 of them are post-graduates, 42 are bachelor’s degree holders — including 22 law graduates.