New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram: In what could be a crucial face-off that has started shaping up at the Vadakara assembly constituency, Congress on Friday announced its support to K K Rema of the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) for the April 6 Kerala Assembly polls.
The decision was announced by Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, along with KPCC chief Mullappally Ramachandran and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, in New Delhi.
While speaking to the reporters after a hectic seat sharing talks that continued for several days now, Chennithala said Congress will back K K Rema in Vadakara, if RMP decides to field her in the constituency in Kerala's Kozhikode district.
Rema is the widow of murdered RMP leader T P Chandrasekheran, who was earlier with the CPI(M).
The fifty-one-year-old Chandrasekheran who had launched the RMP, was hacked 51 times by assailants on May 4, 2012 when he was returning home on his motorcycle in his hometown near Kozhikode.
In the case, 11 people were given life imprisonment, of which three were CPI(M) leaders and the demand for probing the conspiracy behind the murder is still with the court.
Rema has time and again taken on Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for calling her husband as a renegade and the campaign is likely to see sparks fly as Rema has the full backing of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF). The Congress has for a longtime been trying to get Rema to contest the polls again.
Rema had contested as an RMP candidate from the same constituency and had finished third in the 2016 polls, when C K Nanu of the Janata Dal (S) won while M Chandran of the Janata Dal (U) came second.
Janata Dal(U) was led by media baron M P Veerendra Kumar at that time and the party was an ally of the Congress-led UDF. Now the erstwhile JD(U) has been wound up and the Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) that has come up in its place - has left the UDF and become a new ally of the ruling Left.
The CPI(M) last week sprang a surprise by giving the Vadakara seat to the LJD and Manayath Chandran is trying his luck this time, much to the JD(U)'s dislike, who has lost a sitting MLA to their arch rival.
(With IANS inputs)
