The CPI State leadership has finalised the party’s list of candidates for the Assembly elections giving a major share of the party’s 27 seats to new faces and granting exemption to six of its seven MLAs from the norm that those who had contested twice to the Assembly should stay out of the fray.
As many as 12 of the CPI candidates are new faces. Prominent among them being Sarada Mohan, daughter of former Chief Minister P.K. Vasudevan Nair, who has been fielded in Paravur in Ernakulam district, All India Youth Federation (AIYF) State secretary K. Rajan, who has been nominated in Ollur in Thrissur district, Mohamed Mohsin, vice president of the All India Students Federation (AISF) unit at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, who has been fielded in Pattambi in Palakkad district.
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There are four women among the CPI nominees, including Ms. Mohan. The other women candidates are Geetha Gopi (Nattika), C.K. Asha (Vaikom) and E.S. Bijimol (Peerumade), who has been exempted from the two-term norm. The only MLA to be left out of the fray is K. Ajith, who now represents Vaikom in the Assembly. Prominent among those who have benefited from the exemption from the two-term is senior leader and former Minister C. Divakaran. He has, however, been shifted from Karunagapally in Kollam district to Nedumangad in Thiruvananthapuram.
The party has granted exemption to V.S. Sunil Kumar, one of its most vocal MLAs in the present House, as well, but followed it up with the decision to shift him from his present Kaipamangalam constituency to Thrissur.
The other MLAs who have gained from the exemption are former Minister Mullakkara Rathnakaran (Chadayamangalam), K. Raju (Punalur) and P. Thilothaman (Cherthala). The party has not announced its candidates for the Ernad and Manjeri constituencies in Malappuram district.
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The other candidates are E. Chandrasekharan (Kanhangad), K.T. Jose (Irikkur), E.K. Vijayan (Nadapuram), Niyaz Pulickalath (Tirurangadi), K.P. Suresh Raj (Mannarakkad), V.R. Sunil Kumar (Kodungalloor), E.T. Tyson Master (Kaipamangalam), Eldo Abraham (Muvattupuzha), V.B. Binu (Kanjirappally), P. Prasad (Haripad), Chittayam Gopakumar (Adoor), R. Ramachandran (Karunagapally), G.S. Jayalal (Chathannur) and V. Sasi (Chirayinkeezhu).