Kannur: The United Democratic Front (UDF) is set to pick again its candidate to be pitted against Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the Dharmadam legislative assembly constituency in Kannur district.
Vijayan, who is contesting from Dharmadam for the second time, filed his nomination papers at Kannur Collectorate on Monday morning. The Marxist veteran, wearing a face shield, mask and gloves, was accompanied by party leaders, including CPM's Kannur district secretary M V Jayarajan.
Congress on Monday announced the UDF candidate of Dharmadam will be from its ranks after the All-India Forward Bloc (AIFB) refused to take on the CPM leader directly on ideological grounds.
Forward Bloc too is a left-wing outfit with its main political base in Bengal. In Kerala, Forward Bloc is an ally of Congress just as the CPM is its ally in Bengal.
Devarajan pulls out
Earlier, the UDF wanted the Forward Bloc to field its national secretary G Devarajan against Pinarayi. But on Sunday Devarajan expressed his displeasure at the prospect of contesting against the Marxist supremo.
While announcing the candidate list on Sunday, Congress had vacated the Dharmadam seat to accommodate its ally. But the AIFB central committee is of the opinion that their national secretary should not contest against Pinarayi, who is most likely to win from this CPM bastion.
In the 2016 Kerala Assembly election, Vijayan had won from here with an overwhelming majority of 56.86 per cent vote share and 37,000 more votes than the nearest contender, Congress' Mambaram Divakaran.
This time BJP may put up a strong show at Dharmadam against Pinarayi as the party on Sunday announced their national committee member CK Padmanabhan as its candidate. Whether this will be a three-cornered contest depends on the profile of the Congress candidate.
