The Hindu : KPCC sub-committee to select candidates' panel

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 04, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

KPCC sub-committee to select candidates' panel

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MARCH 3 . The KPCC election committee today set up a sub-committee to select a panel of candidates for the 17 Lok Sabha seats the Congress would contest in the State. The sub-committee members are the KPCC acting president, P.P. Thankachan, Aryadan Mohammed, Vayalar Ravi, G. Karthikeyan, and K. Muraleedharan.

The appointment of the committee has belied the expectations of some of the factions at preparing a unanimous list of candidates to be submitted before the scrutiny committee and later by the Congress election committee.

The Karunakaran faction was for a unanimous list, but Mr. Vayalar Ravi and other anti-Karunakaran leaders blocked the move. Mr. Aryadan Mohammed said that he was not against a unanimous list, but the candidates selected would have to be `presentable'. If the party was unable to find a natural choice for a particular seat, then it would be better if a panel were presented, he said.

The Electricity Minister, Mr. Muraleedharan, clarified that he was not opposed to a panel, but whatever the decision, it would have to be taken quickly so that the candidates could hit the election trail. According to KPCC sources, Mr. Muraleedharan had informed the committee members that the senior Congress leader, K. Karunakaran, was not interested in a Rajya Sabha seat, though the faction was particular about the Mukundapuram seat.

The selection of sitting MPs has been left to the party president, Sonia Gandhi, who heads the Congress Central Election Committee. The Congress list from Kerala would be screened by the scrutiny committee headed by Shivraj Patil, and the list approved by it would be submitted to the higher panel.

The KPCC has an additional problem because three sitting MPs - Mr. Karunakaran, V.M. Sudheeran and Mr. Muraleedharan, would not be in the fray. As a result, the three seats they held last time - Mukundapuram, Alapuzha and Kozhikode_ have technically become open.

The KPCC election committee, which held its meeting in two sessions in the morning and the evening, has decided to hold another round of sitting on March 7.

Talking to mediapersons after the second session, Mr. Thankachan said that the party high command had informed the State leadership that the Kerala list would be taken up for discussion only on March 11. He hoped to finalise the list of candidates by that time.

The next meeting would also decide the candidate for the lone Rajya Sabha seat the Congress would be contesting, he said.

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