The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee’s (KPCC) election screening committee met here on Thursday to finalise the party’s candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan said the committee had unanimously decided on the of candidates. “The KPCC will forward the list to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) for taking a final call,” he said.
Mr. Satheesan refused to hazard a guess whether incumbent MPs would contest again in the 16 LS seats held by the party. “It would be inappropriate,” he said.
Earlier, senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala and K. Muraleedharan, MP, said that KPCC president K. Sudhakaran had voiced reservations about contesting again from Kannur. Moreover, the AICC was yet to reveal whether Rahul Gandhi would compete from the Wayanad constituency.
The KPCC was also in the dark about whether the AICC would permit CWC member and the party’s organising secretary, K.C. Venugopal, to contest in Alappuzha.
A Congress insider said the KPCC might have left the high-profile seats for the AICC to decide. He said the Congress had other names if the two leaders demurred from contesting from Kerala.
The Congress seemed to have short-circuited a potentially rancorous selection process by dropping hints that it would ask incumbent MPs to rerun the electoral gauntlet.
