Kottyam: The parliamentary committee of the Kerala Congress (M) would meet next week to deliberate on appointing a new leader who would succeed its deceased Chairman K M Mani.

Party MLAs and and its lone MP, who is a member of the Rajya Sabha, will take part in the meeting that will also discuss the strategies that the KC(M) should adopt for the next assembly polls.

ADVERTISEMENT

Party's working chairman P J Joseph is now in Bahrain. A date for the meeting will be decided when he returns on Saturday.

However, the parliamentary committee members alone cannot decide on who would succeed K M Mani, a tall figure not just in the KC(M) but also in Kerala politics.

The party will have to call a state committee or a high-powered committee meet to decide on the chairman.

Earlier, K M Mani was assigned to take a final call on contentious issues.

To end the leadership crisis, vice-chairman Jose K Mani, K M Mani's son who is the party's Rajya Sabha MP, could be made the Chairman with P J Joseph becoming the chief of the parliamentary committee.

Only after a leader is picked to guide the party, a decision on who would contest in the Pala Assembly bypoll would be made. Mani, who represented the Pala constituency in the Kerala Legislative Assembly for more than five decades, had died last month.

Meanwhile, block committee meeting of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Friday recommended the name of Mani C Kappan as the Left Democratic Front candidate from the Pala assembly seat. Kappan had contested against K M Mani unsuccessfully from the Pala seat in the Assembly polls held in 2006, 2011 and 2016.

However, NCP leaders T P Peethambaran, A K Saseendaran and Thomas Chandy would take a final call on the candidate.

The party members are of the opinion that a decision on the candidate should be taken only after the results of the Lok Sabha polls are declared later this month.

Local body bypolls in Kottayam

Bypolls will be soon held at four panchayats and two blocks in Pambadi division in the district. Manimala, Thiruvarppu, Karur and Moonnilavu panchayats, and Elikulam and Kidangoor blocks will go to the polls.

Read more Kerala news

TAGS

The comments posted here/below/in the given space are not on behalf of Onmanorama. The person posting the comment will be in sole ownership of its responsibility. According to the central government's IT rules, obscene or offensive statement made against a person, religion, community or nation is a punishable offense, and legal action would be taken against people who indulge in such activities.