KANNUR: The rift within the Congress in Kerala over candidates' selection process came to the fore, with senior party leader and MP K Sudhakaran on Sunday alleging that the winning probability and merit of the candidates were not the criteria for the distribution of seats.
Sudhakaran, who is also the Congress Working President in Kerala said that he was not even consulted for the selection process of candidates for Kannur, his political turf and alleged candidates are being selected based on their "groups".
"The responsibility for the problems lies solely with the Congress state leadership and if not resolved it will affect the chances of victory. The KPCC president had only a few discussions. For the victory of the front, selection of the candidates should have been made impartially based on winning probability and merit. But many leaders are in the clutch of groups though they pretend otherwise. This has to change. They have to come out of groups," he said.
Sudhakaran said that once the Congress list is out today every issue should be resolved and all should contest the polls in 'full party spirit '.
The Congress party on Friday announced that 81 candidates have been finalised, out of the 91 seats it will be contesting in Kerala. However, it did not announce the names of these candidates.
Even as the list of Congress candidates getting delayed, the main constituent partners in the Congress-led UDF, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) announced its candidates on Friday.
While the Muslim League will contest on 27 seats, Kerala Congress, the splinter group headed by PJ Joseph having prominence in the Christian-dominated Kottayam-Idukki belt will be contesting on 10 seats. Five seats have been given to the Revolutionary Socialist Party ( RSP) of which Shibu Baby John will be contesting from Chavara.
The election for 140-member Kerala Assembly in 14 districts will be held in a single phase on April 6. The counting of votes will be held on May 2.