Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala is set to witness a bypoll this year even as the LDF government is set to enter the final lap. As parties are mulling over the likely candidates, Congress is reportedly keen on fielding its own candidate from the Kuttanad legislative assembly seat which will hold the next bypoll, whenever announced by the Election Commission. The first political move to take over the seat has been made by the Congress by entrusting the same team, which led the successful campaign during the bypoll in neighbouring Aroor, to oversee electioneering.
A team led by K V Thomas and P T Thomas, MLA, which headed the election campaign of Shanimol Usman in Aroor, has already taken charge of the Congress campaign for the Kuttanad bypoll.
The duo has also asked the party leadership to include Kodikunnil Suresh, MP, and Alappuzha DCC President M Liju in their team. Suresh and Liju were also members of the Congress campaign committee in Aroor a few months ago.
The Kuttanad seat fell vacant as the sitting legislator Thomas Chandy of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) passed away nearly a fortnight ago.
Why Congress asserts itself
Congress, which heads the opposition front UDF, hopes to wrest the seat from the ruling alliance, LDF, by putting up a party member instead of one from the beleaguered Kerala Congress (Mani) which is torn by faction fights between the Jose K Mani and P J Joseph camps.
Congress leaders also assess that the present political climate in the constituency favoured it more than the LDF. The party leadership knows well that a systematic approach and measures to safeguard the unity within the larger front are necessary for getting positive results in the elections. Any weakness in poll preparations would weaken the prospects of the UDF in the bypoll that would be held in all probability with a few months left for the 2021 assembly elections.
Congress leadership has however denied any move to unilaterally takeover the Kuttanad seat. However, it has made it clear that it would have to think of drastic measures to safeguard the interest of the UDF if the verbal duels and infighting continued in the Kerala Congress.
The discussion on candidate selection for the Kuttanad seat is likely to begin at the next UDF meeting.
Kuttanad had been a traditional stronghold of the Kerala Congress before Chandy wrested the seat in 2006. In the last election, Chandy retained the seat by defeating Jacob Abraham of the Kerala Congress.
Abraham is now with the P J Joseph faction.
Pala loss eyeopener
The defeat of the Kerala Congress candidate to Mani C Kappen of the NCP in the Pala bypoll has also prompted the Congress to consider staking claim top the Kuttanad seat.
With both P J Joseph and Jose K Mani factions within the Kerala Congress staking claim for the Kuttanad seat, the Congress doesn't want the infighting within its ally to cost UDF another seat.
Late last year the Pala seat was wrested by the LDF after decades. Kerala Congress stalwart K M Mani had held sway over the constituency for over half a century. His death necessitated the Pala bypoll, but leadership struggle in his party following his death in April 2018 put paid to the hopes of Kerala Congress and UDF to retain the seat.
Mani had won the Pala seat in 12 consecutive elections from 1967.
Aroor experience
In late October, Congress candidate Shanimol Usman wrested the Aroor seat from the LDF in a bypoll held simultaneously with that in four other assembly constituencies. Only CPM candidates had been winning from Aroor for the past 25 years. This hard-earned victory has emboldened the Congress to make the first move in Kuttanad.
(Aroor seat had become vacant following the election of sitting MLA A M Arif to the Loksabha. Incidentally, Arif was the only victorious LDF candidate in the Lok Sabha elections.)
