THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the Congress screening committee meeting to finalize candidates for the LS poll scheduled on Thursday, the state leadership is expected to come up with a panel of names for Thrissur, Mavelikkara and Pathanamthitta constituencies.
In addition to sitting MP TN Prathapan, the party will also consider VT Balram in Thrissur. Similarly in Mavelikkara, ex-MLA VP Sajeendran is among probable candidates. In the case of Pathanamthitta, two more names - YC leader Abin Varkey and DCC vice president Anil Thomas are also being considered.
The leadership is coming up with a panel after poll analyst Sunil Kanugolu’s survey team cast doubts on the winning possibility of sitting MPs in these constituencies - TN Prathapan, Kodikunnil Suresh and Anto Antony respectively.
Congress state president K Sudhakaran and Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan were huddled with Deepa Dasmunshi, national general secretary in-charge of the state on Wednesday evening.
The trio will give a panel of probable candidates for 14 out of 16 Lok Sabha seats the Congress would be contesting. The screening committee chaired by Harish Chaudhary and consisting of Jignesh Mevani and Viswajeet Kadam will shortlist the candidates based the list.
Two seats - Wayanad and Alappuzha - will be left out to wait for the final decision by Ragul Gandhi. If Rahul chooses to defend his sitting seat in Wayanad, most probably KC Venugopal will not contest from Alappuzha. T N Prathapan and Kodikunnil are among those leaders who are keen to switch to state politics. However the duo agreed to defend their sitting seats - Thrissur and Mavelikkara - due to pressure from the High Command. However the half-hearted approach has affected the party’s prospects in these constituencies.
It’s learnt that the poll survey team has not given a favourable report in these constituencies, which prompted the leadership to prepare a panel of names. In Thrissur KPCC vice president VT Balram is also being considered. Another KPCC vice president VP Sajeendran has found a place in the list of names for Mavelikkara. It’s reliably learnt that Kodikunnil himself has endorsed the name of the former Kunnathunad MLA as his successor.
“Kodikunnil has a fear that he would be defeated in Mavelikkara as it’s going to be his eighth outing (three times in Mavelikkara and four times in the earlier Adoor constituency). If he gets defeated, then his prospects in the state politics would be dampened. Since Sudhakaran is scheduled to contest from Kannur, Kodikunnil is keen to get the charge of the KPCC president which would help him to get a launch in the state politics,” a senior Congress leader told TNIE.
In the case of Anto Antony, his vote share in Pathanamthitta has drastically come down in the last three LS elections. In 2009, his vote share was 51% which came down to 41% in 2014 and further dwindled to 37% in 2019. It should be recalled that during the 2019 LS election itself, there were reports that Anto would be sidelined.
A senior Congress leader from Pathanamthitta told TNIE that the Catholic Church has already urged the leadership not to field Anto there. This has prompted the party leadership to come up with two names in the panel for Pathanamthitta - State Youth Congress vice president Abin Varkey and DCC vice president and former national secretary of Youth Congress Anil Thomas.