KJ Shine: CPM's Candidate For Ernakulam Lok Sabha Constituency (Photo on Facebook)

As the Community Party of India (Marxist) announced its candidates for the Lok Sabha election today (Wednesday), the party has selected KJ Shine, also known as Shine teacher, for the Ernakulam constituency. The decision to field KJ Shine, a relatively lesser-known person in state politics though popular in her region, was made after the party”s plan to field a female candidate in Ernakulam to meet party’s women reservation quota.

The decision was taken by the CPM state committee following the recommendations of the district committee.

Though she is not a familiar face among the state leaders, she has been a three-time member of North Paravur Municipality, and has been active in party activities around Paravur. She is also a standing committee chairperson in the municipality and the state committee member of the Kerala School Teachers Association (KSTA). With her skill in delivering excellent speeches, it is believed that the party taking her to the frontier.

However, the newly announced CMP candidate has to confront the sitting Congress MP Hibi Eden who became MLA from the Ernakulam legislative constituency, being one of the young members of the assembly. In the 2019 general election, he won the Ernakulam seat, with a margin of over one lakh votes against CPM’s P Rajeev.

With CPM choosing KJ Shine for Ernakulam, the party believe she can defeat the Congress MP, though it knows it is hard. The constituency has been one of the strongholds of Congress for years. Though Congress is yet to announce its candidates list, sources say that the sitting MP would be fielded again in the same constituency.