The Congress party’s candidate list for the Kerala Assembly elections on April 6 will be finalised by March 10. All strong candidates will find a place in the list, said KC Venugopal, a party senior leader and Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan. Congress leads the Opposition, the United Democratic Front, in Kerala.
“We hope to finalise the candidate list by March 10. All those who are prominent, who need to be considered will be there. As we had told earlier, the Congress views the election with winning probabilities and I understand that all the leaders have agreed to this. The general consensus is to field candidates who have the probability to win," KC Venugopal told the media on Sunday.
The Congress leadership in Kerala has been engaged in seat-sharing discussions with its allies in the United Democratic Front (UDF) for the pasts couple of days. It had been particularly tough to reach a consensus with the Joseph faction of Kerala Congress (Mani) as the party chief PJ Joseph reportedly wants to contest from the Muvattupuzha seat in Ernakulam district. The Congress has not relented to this owing to the opposition by the party’s former MLA, Joseph Vazhackan, who had represented the seat from 2011 to 2016.
"I believe the relevant issues have been sorted out (in the discussions) and only a few minor things exist, which also can be sorted out. There is no doubt about it," said Venugopal.
When asked about the rift within the Congress regarding seat division, Venugopal said, “The rift, if there is, exists only for a very few seats and that would be sorted out during the process of finalising seats. The candidates will be announced after the screening committee holds a meeting as per the direction from the party's state committee."
The major agenda of the Congress is to fight the BJP, “to create an environment to take on the BJP fiercely," said Venugopal.
Meanwhile, it is reported that Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Mullappaly Ramachandran has left for New Delhi to meet the party high-command with the list of probable candidates.
Watch: KC Venugopal talking to the media