In the wake of the new political developments, the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) has been forced to rethink its plan of fielding party State secretary N. Venu from the Vadakara segment in the Assembly polls.
Sources said that K.K. Rema, wife of slain RMP leader T.P. Chandrasekharan, was likely to contest the seat with support of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF). The party district committee will deliberate over the issue at its meeting on Friday. “It is for the party to decide on my candidature,” said Ms. Rema.
Sources said that senior leaders of the Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) had approached the RMP leadership to put up a common candidate to fight the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Earlier, the CPI(M) had planned to field its candidate rather than offering the seat to either of its partners — Janata Dal (Secular) [JD(S)] and the Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD). But now the LJD will contest from Vadakara after the seat-sharing agreement in the LDF.
The Congress-IUML combine can breathe easy till the RMP takes a final call on its nominee in Vadakara. The parties are hoping to influence the voter base of the RMP in the neighbouring segments of Koyilandy, Kuttiyadi and Nadapuram and Kunnamangalam. The UDF also wants to rake up political violence as a key issue and revive memories of the brutal killing of Chandrasekharan at Onchiyam on May 4, 2012.
The Congress nominees were directly or indirectly beneficiaries of the RMP in the Lok Sabha polls in 2009, 2014 and 2019 in Vadakara parliamentary constituency. The RMP had deftly transferred its votes to the successful Congress candidate, Mullappally Ramachandran, in 2009 and 2014.
The party had also not fielded a candidate in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when Congress leader K. Muraleedharan was in direct fight with CPI(M) candidate P. Jayarajan in the constituency.
If Ms. Rema opts out of the fray, the Congress will have to nominate a candidate or offer the seat to one of its coalition partners. In the last Assembly polls, Ms. Rema as RMP candidate contested unsuccessfully, garnering over 20,000 votes.
