New Delhi: The AICC on Tuesday released its list of candidates in the six remaining constituencies in Kerala for the April 6 assembly polls.
Veena S Nair will contest from Vattiyoorkavu, P C Vishnunath from Kundara, T Siddique from Kalpetta, VV Prakash from Nilambur, Riyas Mukkoli from Pattambi and Firoz Kunnamparambil from Thavanur are the candidates.
The opposition Congress, which is contesting in 92 of the 140 assembly seats, had earlier released its candidates for 86 seats.
Its ally Forwad Bloc, which had been allocated the Dharmadam seat, has refused to pit its national general secretary G Devarajan. against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Though Dharmadom was allotted to the Forward Bloc the left-leaning party refused to pit its national general secretary G Devarajan opposite CPM’s Pinarayi Vijayan here. Forward Bloc is with the Left Front in West Bengal and Tripura.
DCC secretary C Reghunath's name is among the probable UDF candidate from Dharmadom. An official announcement is likely soon. The Congress is also considering supporting the mother of the Walayar kids who announced that she would contest against Vijayan from Dharmadom.
Hours after the mother of two minor girls who were found dead in suspicious circumstances in 2017 announced that she would contest against the Kerala Chief Minister at Dharmadam in the April 6 assembly polls, Vijayan said his government had always stood by her and never hurt her.
If she is taking some stand taken by some people accompanying her, she is free do so, The government has already handed over the case to CBI, Vijayan said when asked about the woman's announcement that she would contest against him at Dharmadam as an independent candidate.
The two girls, hailing from Walayar in Palakkad, were found hanging inside their house after alleged sexual assault in 2017.
Vadakara candidate
Ending days of speculation, the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) on Tuesday announced that it would field K K Rema, wife of slain founding leader T P Chandrasekharan, in Vadakara Assembly constituency in Kozhikode district.
Announcing this, the party general secretary K K Venu said the Congress leadership has declared the support of the UDF for Rema.
The RMP, a breakaway group of the CPI(M), has been under pressure to field its candidate in Vadakara to give a tough fight to the LDF.
The Congress as well as the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) had approached the RMP leadership to put up a common candidate to take on the LDF nominee.
But as Rema opted not to contest, the party secretariat nominated Venu for the seat.
However, after the Congress leadership decided to withdraw its offer of support if Rema was not in the fray, the RMP leadership met again on Tuesday and declared the candidature of Rema.
Formed a decade ago by a former Marxist leader Chandrasekharan, theRMP has a solid base in Onjiyam in Vadakara.
Soon after the party's formation, Chandrasekaran contested in the Lok Sabha elections of 2009 as its candidate, but lost.
Later, he was hacked to death allegedly by CPI(M) workers on May 4, 2012.
After Chandrasekharan's killing, his widow Rema took charge of the party.
Though she contested from Vadakara in the 2016 assembly polls, luck did not favour her and she was defeated.
In the 2019 Lok sabha election, the party had extended its support to the UDF and it's nominee K Muraleedharan defeated the LDF candidate P Jayarajan for over 83,000 votes.
