Congress Plans Surprise Candidates For Thrissur And Vadakara; KC Venugopal Returns To Alappuzha: Report

After Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K Sudhakaran announced recently that there will be surprise candidates in Kerala this time, reports suggest that two sitting MPs of the party will be replaced by new candidates. Local media reports have sourced the Congress that big surprise candidates will be fielded in Vadakara and Thrissur. Currently, Vatakara is represented by senior leader and former minister K Muraleedharan and grassroots leader TN Prathapan is Thrissur MP.

A big surprise is coming as the Congress party is currently in the shock of Padmaja Venugopal, daughter of Congress stalwart and former chief minister late K Karunakaran, and sister of Mr Muraleedharan, joined the BJP on Thursday. It is being reported that, to keep the Thrissur voters and cadre in confidence, the opinion in the party is strong that K Muraleedharan should contest from the constituency. However, this time, Thrissur has already gone to the level of a prestige political battle in the state without Congress announcing its candidate. BJP has repeated its star candidate Suresh Gopi while the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Alliance (LDF) has fielded popular CPI leader and former minister VS Sunil Kumar in Thrissur, and both have already hit the campaign trail.

Another reason the Congress party sees in fielding Muraleedharan is the possible candidacy of Padmaja Venugopal in the nearby Chalakudy. The brother has already said that if Padmaja contests in Chalakudy, NOTA will get more votes.

Another surprise is the candidacy of party’s youth leader and Palakkad MLA Shafi Prambil from Vatakara. Mr Parambil, a giant killer and popular leader among the Congress cadre is being considered for the constituency in the North as LDF has already fielded KK Shailaja teacher, the former health minister who is famous for her tenure for tackling several health related calamities. Ms Shailaja’s performance was counted unparalleled because of the measures and steps adopted by her to take control of the situations was lauded by everyone whether it be the outbreak of Nipah virus, Kerala floods or the Covid-19 pandemic.

Shafi Parambil was lauded for snatching the victory away from BJP in his last two elections in Palakkad.

Meanwhile, according to reports, Congress will field the party’s national general secretary in charge of organisation KC Venugopal in Alappuzha, the only seat its alliance failed to win in 2019. Incumbent AM Arif defeated Congress’ Shanimol Usman. Before this, Mr Venugopal had represented the constituency twice, winning 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

After Thursday’s Central Election Committee meeting, Kerala Congress leader and Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan said the list will be announced on Friday.

“In the CEC meeting, in Kerala we are contesting- 16 out of 20 seats. The rest of the four seats are being contested by our constituent parties. Today, the CEC has taken the decision regarding the candidates for those 16 seats. Tomorrow the AICC will announce the names of the candidates…,” he said.