New Delhi: The Congress national leadership has refuted media reports suggesting that the party high command was displeased over the state leadership’s decision to announce candidates to the Wayanad and Vadakara constituencies for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls before the list was cleared by the Central Election Committee (CEC).
AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik, who is in charge of Kerala, made it clear that the announcement was made with the approval of the national leadership and that there was no dispute over the matter.
There were reports that the state leadership's move to release the names of candidates for the aforementioned two seats without the permission of the CEC, headed by All-India Congress Committee president Rahul Gandhi, had not go down well with the party’s top leadership. The CEC, which met on Tuesday night, had not discussed the matter pertaining to candidate selection for the Wayanad and Vadakara constituencies which had been a bone of contention.
Sources privy to the decision told that soon after Rahul left for the north-eastern states to kick-start the election campaign, the state leadership consulted Congress Working Committee (CWC) member A K Antony and Wasnik and it was with their consent the names of the party candidates for the two constituencies was announced.
It was learnt that the state leadership had earlier informed Wasnik in writing about the surprise move to field K Muraleedharan in Vadakara. As AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal was busy with the candidate-selection exercise in different states, the message could not be promptly passed on to him. However, the decision to field T Siddique in Wayanad and Muraleedharan in Vadakara was conveyed to him eventually.
On Tuesday night, the high command decided to postpone the official announcement of candidates for the two seats stating that the central election committee had not completed its discussion on the list.
