THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Two days after announcing the final list of candidates for LS polls, the Congress state leadership feels it stands vindicated by the public response to Thrissur and Vadakara candidates, K Muraleedharan and Shafi Parambil.
It was K Jayanth, KPCC general secretary, who mooted the idea to shift Muraleedharan to Thrissur and bring in Shafi to Vadakara, which was implemented by K C Venugopal, AICC general secretary (organisation).
Moreover, the leadership was apprehensive of chances of cross-voting in Vadakara if Muraleedharan is fielded again in the constituency.
When Muraleedharan packed his bags from Vadakara, there were touching moments which forced him not to say a proper farewell before his voters. But his fears were unwarranted as the reception he received in Thrissur on Sunday was overwhelming.
With Padmaja Venugopal casting serious aspersions against incumbent Thrissur MP T N Prathapan and his loyalists in the local DCC, the onus fell on them to ensure a grand welcome to Muraleedharan.
An elated Satheesan said that both Shafi and Muraleedharan would romp home with huge margins. When uncertainty prevailed on the candidature in Wayanad, Kannur and Alappuzha over community equations, the top brass of the leadership had racked their brains to resolve the issue.
Apart from Venugopal and Satheesan, Congress state president K Sudhakaran, CWC leaders Ramesh Chennithala and Shashi Tharoor were closeted at the meetings held in New Delhi ahead of the central election committee meeting.
“Jayanth, who originally belongs to Kozhikode, was aware of RSS -BJP plan to cross-vote against Muraleedharan in Vadakara. The move was visible in the constituency over the past six months. When the Congress is eager to ensure a clean sweep in the upcoming elections, we can’t afford to lose any seat. In the case of Shafi, he is a youth leader who has wide acceptance and doesn’t carry the minority tag. At the same time, by fielding a minority candidate, it’s going to benefit the other Congress candidates in Malabar,” said a source close to Jayanth.
Once Venugopal was convinced about the ground reality, he decided to go ahead with the surprise move to shift Muraleedharan to Thrissur. The leadership also wanted to give a fitting reply to Padmaja for ditching them at the eleventh hour and also to BJP’s Suresh Gopi.
P Viswanath, AICC secretary in charge of the state, told TNIE that the chief election committee unanimously agreed to the proposal to field Shafi in Vadakara.
“It was a collective decision to bring in a surprise entry in the form of Shafi. My observation is that the Congress’ candidate selection has been excellent which would help us sweep the polls,” said Viswanath.
A party source told TNIE that Shafi was initially hesitant to the proposal, but agreed when Venugopal conveyed the central leadership’s plan.
