Thiruvananthapuram: Leftist parties have initiated a move to field former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan against incumbent Shashi Tharoor in the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat. Narayanan's name has come up after the main ruling partners, CPM and CPI, agreed that a candidate respected by people should face Tharoor, who has won the seat twice on a Congress ticket.
It is understood that Narayanan hasn't agreed to contest. “People are telling so many stories,” Narayanan said. “No one has approached me. We need to think about it only at that stage.”
The ruling Left Democratic Front normally leaves the seat to the CPI. They had fielded entrepreneur Bennet Abraham in 2014, drawing allegations that they had made it a 'payment seat.' The CPI is keen to have a strong candidate this time against Tharoor. That is how the ex-scientist's name cropped up.
Narayanan garnered much sympathy after he was cleared in the ISRO spying case, in which he was falsely implicated. The Supreme Court ordered a compensation of Rs 50 lakh to him, which the chief minister has already handed over to him.
The espionage case, which hit the headlines in 1994, pertained to allegations of transfer of certain confidential documents on India's space programme to foreign countries by two scientists and four others, including two Maldivian women.
Narayanan had to spend close to two months in jail.
The case was first investigated by the state police and later handed over to the CBI, which found the allegations to be false.
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