BJP in candidate dispute
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Kummanam Rajashekharan
"Thiruvananthapuram: Dispute over candidacy continues in BJP Kerala faction. As there was no consensus in the core committee meeting held at Kottayam, a list suggesting three names for each constituency as candidates will be submitted to the national leadership. It is learnt that announcement of candidates will be made on 16th March. State president PS Sreedharan Pillai and Kummanam Rajasekharan have been summoned to Delhi.
The party explains that there is no dispute and there is only some delay in declaration of candidates by the central leadership.
However, there are disputes over Pathanamthitta, Thrissur, Palakkad and other seats. In Thiruvananthapuram only Kummanam Rajasekharan's name is being considered. State president PK Krishnadas will contest from Kasargode and CK Padmanabhan will contest from Kannur. State General Secretary MT Ramesh and KP Sridharan are being considered for Kozhikode. However, MT Ramesh is said to have declared that he will not be contesting this time. There is dispute over the candidate in Pathanamthitta district where Sabarimala issue stirred up. General Secretary K. Surendran wants to contest in Thrissur or Pathanamthitta. However, state president Sreedharan Pillai claims that Pathanamthitta will favour him. A faction of the party does not want to give away Thrissur seat for BDJS. But, the BJP leadership has informed that the Thrissur seat will be given if BDJS president Thushar Vellapally is prepared to contest from the seat. The uncertainty continues as Thushar has not so far conveyed his decision officially.
Surendran has informed that he will not be contesting if Thrissur or Pathanamthitta is not allotted to him. There is a move to field former PSC chairman KS Radhakrishnan in Alappuzha and CV Ananda Bose in Kollam. But, the district committee is not interested in the case of Ananda Bose. Sobha Surendran is being tipped for Attingal and Palakkad. However, a faction is stern on the demand to field C. Krishnakumar at Palakkad. BJP will be contesting in 15 seats while BDJS will contest in 4 seats and Kerala Congress (Thomas) is set to contest in one seat.
