Kerala: CPM nominates young, fresh faces for 5 bypolls in October

If these candidates, all of them men, win, they will enter the state Assembly for the first time.

Kerala bypolls, Kerala bye-elections, LDF, UDF, Kerala news

The bypolls in five seats will be a crucial litmus test for the ruling Left government as it will be gauged on its policies and programmes.

In an indication of course-correction after the disastrous showing in the parliamentary elections, the CPM in Kerala has nominated five young candidates with a neat image for the October bye-elections in five seats. If these candidates, all of them men, win, they will enter the state Assembly for the first time.

Prominent among them is VK Prasanth, the mayor of Thiruvananthapuram, who has been nominated by the Left for the Vattiyoorkavu Assembly seat in the state capital, which is poised to witness a strong triangular fight. In 2016, Congress strongman K Muraleedharan had won the seat with a razor-thin margin over BJP’s K Rajasekharan and CPM’s TN Seema. This is a seat where the BJP harbours winning prospects and is likely to field an influential leader to shore up Hindu votes. Both Congress and BJP haven’t declared their candidates yet.

For the Aroor, Manjeswaram and Konni seats, the CPM has pitched the names of Manu C Pulikkal, Shankar Rai and KU Jinesh Kumar. Both Pulikkal and Kumar are state vice-presidents of the DYFI, the CPM’s youth wing. In Manjeswaram, the name of veteran former MLA CH Kunjambu was being discussed, but the party chose Rai in last-round discussions. Aroor is the only seat among the five where the CPM had its MLA.

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In Ernakulam, considered a Congress stronghold, the CPM has gone for Advocate Manu Roy as an Independent candidate. Roy is the son of a veteran local journalist and practices as an advocate at the Kerala High Court. He belongs to the Latin Catholic community, which has a large population in the seat.

The bypolls in five seats will be a crucial litmus test for the ruling Left government as it will be gauged on its policies and programmes. In three of the five seats – Vattiyoorkavu, Manjeswaram and Konni, the CPM candidates will face a stiff challenge from the BJP. In the remaining seats, it is locked in a direct contest with the Congress-led UDF.

CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told reporters that the candidates were not chosen on the basis of community-caste equations, but on their winnability and their image.

By the end of this week, the UDF and BJP are expected to present their candidate lists.

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