Kannur: As uncertainty continues over the United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate for the Dharmadom Legislative Assembly seat in Kannur district, a section within the Congress is clamouring to deploy K Sudhakaran, MP, as Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's challenger in the ensuing state polls.
A dozen local functionaries of the party and the UDF in Dharmadom requested Sudhakaran to be the candidate in this CPM bastion. They had called on him on Monday to convey the wish so that Pinarayi has a worthy opponent.
While conceding that supporters have been raising such a demand, Sudhakaran, who is also a Working President of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), said that he cannot give in to everyone's wishes.
When mediapersons asked Sudhakaran shouldn’t the UDF field a strong candidate in Dharmadom against CM Pinarayi Vijayan, he replied, "It is not a wrestling match, but an election!”
On Monday the Congress had announced the UDF candidate at Dharmadom will be from its ranks after the All-India Forward Bloc (AIFB) refused to take on the CPM leader directly on ideological grounds.
While announcing the candidate list on Sunday, Congress had vacated the Dharmadom 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.
Vijayan, who is contesting from Dharmadom for the second time, filed his nomination papers on Monday morning.
This time BJP too may put up a strong show at Dharmadom 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.