Amid fights within the party over fielding certain candidates and multiple sessions of reviewing, the Congress has finally released its list of candidates who will be contesting the 2021 Kerala Assembly election on April 6. The Congress in Kerala will contest from 92 out of 140 Assembly seats. However, the party has only announced candidates for 86 Assembly seats. The party has fielded 11 female candidates, while 55% of the candidates will be new faces. Many senior leaders, who have been contesting for decades, have been kept out of the race for the purpose of introducing new faces. Among the 86 candidates, 27-year-old Aritha Babu will be the youngest candidate of Congress.
After a five-day screening committee meeting and more meetings with the party leadership in Delhi, Kerala Congress Pradesh Committee (KPCC) President Mullappally Ramachandran on Sunday announced the list of candidates for 86 out of 92 seats that the Congress will contest from this election. The party high-command will further deliberate on candidates for six seats namely Kalpetta, Nilambur, Vattiyoorkavu, Kundara, Tavanur and Pattambi and release this list later.
The Congress has decided to field party veteran and former CM Oommen Chandy from his home constituency of Puthuppally. This is after Congress cadres protested, and even blocked Oommen Chandy’s car, following reports that he would be fielded from the Nemom seat this time around.
Former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy is one of the few veteran Congress leaders who is contesting this election.
Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala will also contest from his stronghold of Haripad in Alappuzha.
The Nemom constituency in Thiruvananthapuram, one of the most debated seats, has been allotted to a sitting Member of Parliament (MP) from Vadakara, K Muraleedharan. On Friday, the Congress leaders had said that no MPs will be roped in for the election. “Ideally, no MPs should contest in Assembly polls. But, it was critical to have a bog candidate for this seat as the fight is against the BJP,” said Mullappally Ramachandran. Hours before the candidate list came out, Muraleedharan spoke to the media, stating that the party leaders were trying to get an exemption from rule that sitting MPs cannot contest in the polls.
The fight for the Nemom constituency would be one of the toughest in the state as both Congress and CPI(M) are vying to wrest the seat from BJP. Nemom is the only constituency of the BJP in Kerala, which is currently held by O Rajagopal. The BJP has fielded Kummanam Rajasekharan for the seat.
Incidentally, the Congress leadership had found it particularly tough to pick a candidate for the Nemon constituency. According to reports, the party high-command asked Oommen Chandy and Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala to come out of their comfort zones in Puthupally and Haripad respectively — and to contest in Nemom. However, both leaders had rejected this. The names of senior leaders K Muraleedharan and Shashi Tharoor were reportedly considered for Nemom.
Introducing its youngest candidate, 27-year-old Aritha Babu, Mullappally Ramachandran said, the candidate hails from a marginalised family. “She will dedicate her time to political campaigns. We are proud to have her as our candidate,” he said. Among the other noted women candidates are Padmaja Venugopal who will contest from Thrissur, Shanimol Usman from Aroor and Advocate Bindhu Krishna from Kollam.
However, Mahila Congress leaders have slammed the Congress leadership for not allotting sufficient seats for women candidates. Reports had earlier said that at least 20% of the seats will be allotted to female candidates.
Among the other familiar faces, Congress had fielded film actor Dharmajan from the Scheduled Caste reserved seat in Balussery in Kozhikode district. Notably, local leaders in Balussery had earlier expressed their discontent over fielding Dharmajan, who is not a native of the place.
Out of the 86 candidates announced on Sunday, 46 are aged between 25 and 50 years, 22 are aged between 51 and 60 years of age, 15 are aged between 60 and 70 years, while three are above 70 years old.
According to Mullappally Ramachandran, KPCC President, 15 of the candidates are undergraduates, there are 42 who are graduates, 12 post-graduates, two Ph.D holders and two are medical practitioners.
The candidate for six seats — Kalpetta and Nilambur in Wayanad, Vattiyoorkavu in Thiruvananthapuram and Kundara in Kollam, Thavanoor in Malappuram and Pattambi in Palakkad — will be announced probably by Monday, Mullappally said.
Among the constituent parties of the United Democratic Front (UDF), which is led by the Congress, only the Indian Muslim League (IUML) has finalised its list of candidates for 24 seats. They are yet to finalise the candidates for three more seats.
UDF has decided to support KK Rema of the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) from Vadakara, if she decides to contest. She is the wife of late RMP leader TP Chandrasekheran, who was earlier with the CPI(M) and was hacked to death in May 2012.
Udma - PV Balakrishnan
Kanhangad - PV Suresh
Taliparamba - Abdul Rasheed PV
Irikkur - ADV Sajeev Joseph
Kannur - Satheeshan Pacheni
Peravoor - Advocate Sunny Joseph
Thalassery - MP Aravindakshan
Payyannur - M Pradeep Kumar
Kalliasseri - Bridesh Kumar
Mananthavady - PK Jayalakshmi
Sulthanbathery - IC Balakrishnan
Balussery - Dharmajan PK
Kozhikode North - KM Abhijith
Beypore - Adv Niyas
Nadapuram - Advocate K Praveen Kumar
Ponnani - AM Rohit
Wandoor - AP Anil Kumar
Thrithala - VT Balram
Shoranur - T Firoz Babu
Ottapalam - Dr Salim
Malampuzha - SK Ananthakrishnan
Palakkad - Shafi Parambil
Tarur - KA Sheeba
Chittur - Sumesh Achudan
Alathur - Palayam Pradeep
Chelakkara - CC Sreekumar
Kunnamkulam - K Jayashankar
Wadakkanchery - Anil Akkara
Manalur - Vijaya Hari
Ollur - Jose Vellur
Thrissur - Padmaja Venugopal
Nattika - Sunil Lanoor
Pudukkad - Anil Anthikad
Kaipamangalam - Shoba Subin
Chalakudy - TJ Saneesh Kumar
Kodungallur - MP Jackson
Perumbavoor - Eldhose Kunnappilly
Angamaly - Roji M John
Aluva - Anwar Sadhath
Kunnathunad - VP Sajeendran
Paravur - BG Satheeshan
Vypeen - Deepak Joy
Kochi - Tonni Chemmani
Tripunithura - K Babu
Ernakulam - TJ Vinod
Thrikkakara - PT Thomas
Muvattupuzha - Mathew Koelnaadan
Devikulam - D Kumar
Udumbanchola - Adv EM Augustin
Peerumade - Cyriac Thomas
Vaikom - Dr PR Sona
Kottayam - Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan
Puthuppally - Oommen Chandy
Kanjirappally - Joseph Vazhekkan
Poonjar - Adv Tomy Kallani
Aroor - Shanimol Usman
Cherthala - S Sharath
Alappuzha - KS Manoj
Ambalappuzha - Adv M Liju
Haripad - Ramesh Chennithala
Kayamkulam - Aaritha Babu
Mavelikkara - KK Shaju
Chengannur - M Vali
Kottarakkara - Reshmi R
Pathanapuram - George Kumar Chamakala
Karunagappally - CR Mahesh
Ranni - Ringoo Cherian
Aranmula - K Sivadasan Nair
Konni - Robin Peter
Adoor - MG Kannan
Chadayamangalam - MM Naseer
Kollam - Adv Bindhu Krishna
Chathannoor - Peethambara Kurup
Chirayinkeezhu - Anoop BS
Nedumangad - PS Prasanth
Vamanapuram - Aanadu Jayan
Aruvikkara - KS Sabarinath
Kattakada - Malayinkeezhu Venugopal
Kazhakkoottam - Dr SS Lal
Thiruvananthapuram - VS Sivakumar
Nemom - K Muraleedharan
Parassala - Ansajitha Rasal
Kovalam - M Vincent
Neyyattinkara - R Selvaraj
Varkala - VRM Shafeer