Muraleedharan not considered for Palakkad bypoll as Satheesan against it: CPI(M)

Palakkad: The ruling CPI(M) in Kerala on Thursday took a dig at the opposition Congress by saying its senior leader K Muraleedharan was not considered to represent Palakkad assembly seat in the bypoll as Leader of Opposition in the state legislature V D Satheesan was against the same.

CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan said that there were five to six CM candidates, including Muraleedharan, in the Congress and Satheesan did not want him in the assembly.

"I am only explaining the politics behind the selection of Rahul Mamkootathil as the Congress candidate from Palakkad even after the District Congress Committee from here proposed the name of Muraleedharan," Govindan claimed.

His claim was rejected by the Congress with AICC general secretary K C Venugopal saying that such decisions cannot be taken by him or Satheesan on their own.

"It was a collective decision," he said.

Govindan also said that the electoral fight for the Palakkad assembly seat was between the LDF and UDF and the BJP would come third.

"Do you think the BJP candidate will get the number of votes that E Sreedharan got (in the 2021 assembly elections)?" he asked.

He also wondered whether the Congress candidate will be able to garner the number of votes that Shafi Parambil got when he won in 2021 assembly elections from Palakkad.

Parambil had got over 54,000 votes in the 2021 assembly election in Palakkad, while Sreedharan came second with a little over 50,000 votes.

A bypoll was necessitated in Palakkad after Parambil vacated the seat following his election from the Vadakara constituency in the Lok Sabha elections.

Rahul's rivals in the bypoll are LDF's independent candidate and expelled Congress leader P Sarin and BJP's C Krishnakumar.