CPI to field Alankode Leelakrishnan in Thrissur, renominates all 4 ministers

Thiruvananthapuram: The CPI has claimed credit for being the first major political party to nominate all its candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections in Kerala in its first list itself. All four ministers are among the seven MLAs the CPI has renominated. The party's three-term norm led to six MLAs making way for others. However, the norm has been relaxed for four candidates, who had contested twice in the Assembly polls.

The State executive committee made several changes to the lists from the district committees. It saw the nominations of candidates who were not on the list. The executive committee even rejected all nominees for Paravur and Nattika. Instead, the State body sprang a surprise by nominating ET Taison in Paravur, and writer Alankode Leelakrishnan in Thrissur. Taison represented Kaipamangalam in the outgoing Assembly.

Two district secretaries have also been included on the list. While Idukki District Committee secretary K Salimkumar was made the candidate in Peerumade, Ernakulam District secretary N Arun has been nominated to contest from Moovattupuzha.

Hence, assistant secretary Jose Philip and E.K. Sivan will hold additional responsibilities of district secretaries in Idukki and Ernakulam, respectively.

Though the Kollam district committee demanded an additional term for PS Supal, the executive committee refused to relax the term norm for him.

Besides the four ministers, the CPI had nominated two other State secretariat members to contest the elections. While secretariat member R Rajendran will contest from Chathanoor, KK Valsaraj will seek the people's mandate from Kaipamangalam.

State assistant secretary Sathyan Mokeri's wife and State president of Mahila  Sangham, CPI's women's wing, P Vasantham (Nadapuram) figured on the list. Despite strong speculation of party veterans K. Prakash Babu, Panniyan Raveendran, KP Rajendran and others making a comeback, their names were not discussed in the State leadership meeting.

CC Mukundan, who has been at loggerheads with the party leadership and P Balachandran, criticised over his performance, have been excluded. It has been reported that Balachandran requested the party not to consider him.

Geetha Gopi, who was not nominated in 2021, citing the two-term norm, has been brought back to Nattika. Muhammed Muhassin P, who has been facing opposition from within the party, has been renominated to contest from Pattambi.

The Ernakulam district committee had recommended the party executive member KM Dinakaran, his son Divin, Kamala Sadanandan and KB Arumughan as its candidate from Paravur. Though the CPM wanted to take over the segment from the CPI, the move was stalled since the alternative seat belonged to the Kerala Congress (Mani). The CPI executive committee rejected the district's list of possible candidates for Paravur after the CPM insisted on fielding a strong candidate against the sitting MLA and Opposition Leader VD Satheesan.

MLAs E Chandrasekhar, PS Supal, Chittayam Gopakumar, EK Vijayan, V Sasi, P Balachandran, CC Mukundan and CK Asha will not be contesting in the upcoming polls.