Thiruvananthapuram: Trouble broke out at the Palakkad district committee meeting of the ruling CPI-M on Tuesday after the name of PK Jameela, a retired doctor from the Kerala State Health Services, surfaced during a heated discussion after she was named as a candidate from the Tarur Assembly constituency in Palakkad district.
Jameela is the wife of Kerala Law Minister AK Balan, who has been a legislator since 2001. Her name was proposed for the seat which Balan has been contesting.
The move was met with protests from several quarters and in the end, while her name continues to be on the list, a final call will be taken in the state committee meeting of the party to be held here later this week.
Speaking to the media later, Balan, who was also present at the meeting, said that he can comment on the matter only after the party takes a decision on it.
A similar situation had surfaced in CPI-M's Kollam district committee when veteran Communist leader and former state minister PK Gurudasan said that the party failed to gain anything from popular actor Mukesh, who had replaced him as the party candidate from the Kollam Assembly constituency in 2016.
Objections were also raised when the name of state Fisheries Minister J. Mercykutty came up, as her acts had dented the image of the Left government in the way she handled a proposed project in deep-sea fishing, which had to be cancelled, following a huge opposition onslaught.
However, both the names have been cleared and sent to the state committee for final approval.
