KANNUR: Even as uncertainty over the candidate in Dharmadom continues in the Congress, some leaders dropped hints of a high-profile contest with the surprise arrival of a senior leader. Though party workers have started a whisper campaign about the possibility of K Sudhakaran, MP of Kannur, entering the fray, sources close to the leader deny such a possibility.
Supporters of Sudhakaran feel that if he enters the fray, the entire scenario will change and make it a high-voltage contest involving three top leaders in the state, as Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and former BJP state president C K Padmanabhan have already started campaigning in the constituency. Sudhakaran himself has not responded to the queries of the media. In the 2016 assembly elections, Pinarayi had defeated Congress leader Mambaram Divakaran for a margin of 36,905 votes.
However, Sudhakaran supporters point out that in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Sudhakaran could reduce the margin in the assembly segment to around 4,000, which shows that the constituency is not as unassailable for a Congress candidate as the CPM claims it to be. Earlier, Forward Block, an ally of UDF, decided to not field its candidate in Dharmadom against Pinarayi. The party had asked the Congress leadership for another seat, but it was denied.
The Congress leadership also has to quell the internal dissidence over Sajeev Joseph’s candidature in Irikkur constituency, which has been an ‘A’ group fortress with K C Joseph winning eight consecutive times. His prospects have been dented with ‘A’ group leaders announcing their resignation from the party posts. The disgruntled ‘A’ leaders have said they would stay away from election work in all constituencies in the district.
It is learnt that A K Antony and Oommen Chandy called Sony Sebastian, who was the ‘A’ group nominee, to assuage the feelings of the enraged leader. People close to Sony Sebastian said he had expressed his strong resentment over the leadership’s decision ignoring the popular sentiments of the workers in the constituency. On Tuesday, UDF convenor M M Hassan and sitting MLA K C Joseph will reach the constituency to have pacify the protesting ‘A’ group leaders.