Palakkad: Amid mounting protests from its cadre, the CPM district committee has decided against fielding Dr P K Jameela, wife of minister A K Balan, in Tharoor constituency for the upcoming assembly polls.
Instead of Dr Jameela, the committee named DYFI district president P P Sumodh as the candidate.
A section of partymen, however, believes that Dr Jameela still has a chance since the state secretariat has to finalise the list, before submitting it to the approval of the politburo.
On Sunday, the party’s district secretariat and committee, scheduled to meet in the morning, were postponed to afternoon after posters erupted against Balan at several places in Tharoor and also in front of the party’s district committee office.
The possible protest against Balan at the committee, however, was avoided after the panel named Sumodh and Kongad former district panchayat president K Shanthakumari as probable candidates from Tharoor. Incidentally, Balan himself nominated Sumodh and Shanthakumari.
The district committee also named district secretariat member P Mamikkutty instead of district secretary C K Rajendran at Shoranur and K Pramod instead of P Unni, MLA, at Ottappalam. P K Sasi is the sitting MLA from Shoranur.
Meanwhile, CPM cadres continued their protests over candidature at several places in the state, and also against the party’s move to grant some seats to Kerala Congress (M).
Posters, claiming to be from ‘Chelakkara Comrades’, appeared at several places in Chelakkara constituency, against the candidature of former minister K Radhakrishnan.
The dissidents demanded that the sitting MLA, U R Pradeep, be fielded in the segment.
At Ponnanni, posters supporting district secretariat member T M Siddique were pasted over those backing Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan. Rejecting this clamour, the district committee decided on state committee member P Nandakumar.
Meanwhile in Kasaragod district committee, two of the three names suggested by the state committee met stiff opposition.
Those opposed to state committee nominees named E Padmavathy instead of C H Kunhambu at Uduma, and district committee secretary M V Balakrishnan instead of sitting MLA M Rajagopal from Thrikkarippur.
The candidature of G Stephen – instead of V K Madhu – at Aruvikkara in Thiruvananthapuram also enraged a section of the CPM.
CPM workers in Ranni and Kuttiyadi registered their protest against the party decision to field Kerala Congress (M) candidates from these constituencies.