A majority of Congress MPs from Kerala seemed to face a diminished deselection threat in the next Lok Sabha elections if the signals emanating from the party’s Pradesh Election Committee (PEC) meeting in Thrissur on Sunday are anything to go by.
An insider said that the PEC seemed intent on avoiding the risk of a shambolic, contentious and protracted selection process and concurred in principle to field most of the sitting MPs again.
However, some hitches remain. For one, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K. Sudhakaran and senior leader Kodikkunnil Suresh have expressed their willingness to stay out for different reasons. They represent the Kannur and Mavelikara LS constituencies respectively.
Mr. Sudhakaran hoped to focus on helming the Congress’s campaign in the State. Mr. Suresh purportedly aspires to a more significant role in State politics.
The Congress must also find a candidate to take on the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] in the Alappuzha constituency. Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala’s bid to field Congress Working Committee (CWC) member K.C. Venugopal in the seat is yet to reach a finality.
IUML demand
Notably, the Congress has to grapple with the Indian Union Muslim League’s (IUML) “increasingly strident” demand for a third seat.
Hence, the PEC reportedly tasked Mr. Sudhakaran, Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan, Mr. Chennithala, and United Democratic Front (UDF) convener M.M. Hassan to clinch the candidate selection process immediately.
Despite the air of optimism pervading the party, Congress leaders seemed acutely mindful that short-circuiting the candidate selection process on the cusp of the national elections carried its uncertainties. A Congress insider said voter fatigue with incumbents remained a stark possibility. Some in the party signalled that new faces typifying a transformative agenda might better appeal to the young demographic.
Gender balance
Moreover, given the current matrix, the Congress might only have limited seats to strike a gender balance for countervailing the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) emphasis on women’s empowerment.
However, the Congress leadership calculates that Rahul Gandhi’s presence at the hustings in Kerala might help the party paper over the glaring vulnerability of fielding incumbent MPs and replicate its mammoth tally in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Moreover, by fast-tracking candidate selection, the Congress hoped to steal a march on the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the campaign trail.
Left parties
Meanwhile, the LDF and the BJP were striving to solve their respective Rubik’s Cubes of candidate finalisation. The CPI(M) and the CPI have scheduled State-level leadership meetings in mid-February.
The BJP has almost settled on Suresh Gopi as its candidate in the Thrissur constituency while juggling the names of national bigwigs in other segments, primarily Thiruvananthapuram and Wayanad.
