Thaindian News

Kochi (Kerala), Oct 11 (IANS) Kerala unit Congress president Ramesh Chennithala said Sunday that discussions to finalise candidates for the three assembly by-elections due Nov 7 are almost over and the names would be announced in a few days.
Chennithala told IANS: “We are holding talks with a cross section of party leaders and select people in these constituencies to finalise the names. Once we complete the exercise we will inform the party high command for its approval. There are no issues at all.”

Polls are due in Kannur, Ernakulam and Alappuzha - the three seats which fell vacant after three sitting Congress legislators got elected to the Lok Sabha in the recent general elections.

The Congress state executive met last week and decided to entrust the job of identifying the candidates to Chennithala and Leader of Opposition Oommen Chandy.

Meanwhile, a group of Youth Congress leaders have faxed a letter to the party high command requesting not to select A.P. Abdulla Kutty, a two-time CPI-M lawmaker who joined the Congress party recently, as candidate for Kannur.

“So many things have to be considered - from caste, community, religion, gender, the backing of the top brass of the state leaders,” a Congress leader told IANS, unwilling to be identified.

The names doing the rounds for Kannur seat include Kutty, P. Ramakrishnan and T. Siddiq.

For the Ernakulam seat, the list includes Lino Jacob, Dominic Presentation and Lally Vincent, while for Alappuzha the hopefuls are A.A. Shukur and Shani Mol Usman.

Veteran Congress leader K. Karunakaran has in the meantime handed the names of three candidates for the seats.

The ruling Left Front has announced names for two seats, while it is expected to name the candidate for the Ernakulam seat in a day or two.