The results of the Kerala Assembly Elections seem to have vindicated the stand of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee President, VM Sudheeran.
The major roadblock the UDF faced while zeroing in on candidates for the election was the clash between VM Sudheeran and Oommen Chandy. Sudheeran had repeatedly demanded that tainted ministers and aspirants who had contested more than four previous elections, be excluded from the candidate list.
Then ministers K. Babu, Adoor Prakash, KC Joseph and MLAs Dominic Presentation, Benny Behenan were all names that Sudheeran wanted to keep out of the list. While Sudheeran had objected to the candidature of Babu, Prakash and Benny Behenan because of the allegations raised against them, he wanted the other candidates rejected for having contested too many prior elections.
Oommen Chandy, however, was set on his decision that all of these candidates would be nominated. Later, Benny Behenan had to move out and instead PT Thomas was fielded as the UDF candidate in the Trikkakara constituency.
Proving that Sudheeran was right, only KC Joseph from Irikkur and Adoor Prakash from Konni won among these leaders, while all the others failed.
K Babu’s failure, in particular, came as a big setback for the UDF, since Babu had been the sitting MLA of Tripunithura for the last 20 years. However K Babu indirectly blamed Sudheeran for his loss, saying that some campaigns against him had badly affected his chances.
“Some campaigns projecting me as useless to the party have badly affected me,” he told the media after his loss.
Meanwhile, PT Thomas, who replaced Benny Behenan, won a handsome victory, as Sudheeran predicted.
The Kochi constituency had shown a clear preference for UDF for many years now. However, in this election, Dominic Presentation lost the Kochi seat.
Sudheeran had challenged the candidature of K. Babu, Adoor Prakash and Benny Behenan for the allegations against them. According to him others should had stayed out as they were contesting for years.