Thiruvananthapuram/Kannur: KPCC working president K Sudhakaran on Thursday expressed reluctance to contest from Dharmadon, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan's constituency.
Sudhakaran welcomed the suggestion of the KPCC and AICC leadership that he take on Pinarayi, but said his candidature would be detrimental to achieve the goal of the UDF in Kannur to bag five seats as he would be bogged down in Dharmadom if he were to contest. Thus a high-voltage contest has been avoided in Dharmadom.
"The party leadership has asked me to contest from Dharmadom. I welcome it and express my gratitude. But, there is a special circumstance which is not favourable for me. I also have the responsibility of working for the party candidates' victory in five constituencies in Kannur," Sudhakaran told reporters in Kannur.
He said he did not get enough time to make any fundamental preparation at the constituency, which was inevitable ahead of contesting and so he did not want to be a contender at the segment during the polls.
"If preparations had begun much earlier, the party could have made significant progress in campaigning and achieve a thumping victory in Dharmadom, he claimed.
Sudhakaran also said even the district congress committee was not in favour of him contesting from the segment.
Later, C Raghunath, the general secretary of the Kannur District Congress Committee, filed his nomination for contesting from the Dharmadom Legislative Assembly constituency.
KPCC president Mullapally Ramachandran, who too wanted Sudhakaran in the fray, said a decision on Dharmadom candidate would be announced by the Congress High Command in Delhi, though he refused to reveal if it would be Sudhakaran. He filed the nomination even before the official announcement by Congress High Command. Sudhakaran had earlier proposed the name of Raghunath to take on Pinarayi.
Earlier, the Congress had fielded K Muraleedharan in Nemom, the lone constituency which elected a BJP legislator in Kerala's history. BJP's O Rajagopal is the sitting legislator in Nemom, which the Congress wants to wrest.
The Congress seeks to project its credentials as a party ready to fight both the BJP and the CPM in Kerala, but Sudhakaran's reluctance is now worrying the leadership.
The other major contestant here is the BJP candidate C K Padmanabhan. He had led the party in Kerala from 1998 to 2003.
In the 2016 Kerala Assembly election, Pinarayi had won from Dharmadom with a 37,000-vote margin over the second-placed contender, Congress' Mambaram Divakaran.
Earlier, senior Congress leaders Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala held talks with Sudhakaran to persuade him to take on Pinarayi Vijayan in Dharmadom.
On Wednesday a dozen local functionaries of the party and the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Dharmadom had requested Sudhakaran to become the candidate against Pinarayi. They had called on him last week also 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), had said that he cannot give in to everyone's wishes.
Local Congress leaders in Dharmadom even dialled veteran A K Antony to impress upon Sudhakaran to contest the Assembly polls.
Earlier 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!"