Cong urged to field Rema against Jayarajan

Thiruvananthapuram: IUML legislator K.M. Shaji, here on Wednesday, urged the Congress to field K.K. Rema, widow of slain Communist Party of India-Marxist leader T.P. Chandrasekheran, from the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency against P. Jayarajan, nominated by the CPI-M.

Writing on his Facebook page, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader said fielding Rema could be a symbolic poll battle.

"If this happens, it could well be a fight to prove that votes are powerful than the swords. Jayarajan, all knows, is an accused in two murder cases. Such a contest, if the Congress agrees to nominate Rema, would also be a tribute to three mothers, who lost their young sons (all Congress workers) to the murderous politics launched by the CPI-M in Kasargode and Kannur districts," Shaji told IANS.

The CPI-M sprang a surprise when it decided to field former party legislator P. Jayarajan, a murder accused who was sent to jail in two different murder cases currently in the court.

Chandrasekheran, who launched the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP), was hacked in 51 pieces by some assailants on May 4, 2012 when he was returning home on his motorcycle in his hometown near Kozhikode.

The RMP has been contesting polls in Kerala, especially in the northern districts without aligning with any of the three political fronts in the state.

Rema contested the 2016 Assembly polls from the Vadakara constituency and secured over 20,000 votes.

In the case, a court has sentenced 11 people to life imprisonment, of which three were CPI-M leaders. The demand to probe the conspiracy behind the murder is still in the court.

The sitting Lok Sabha member from Vadakara is the state Congress president Mullapally Ramachandran who has announced that he would not be contesting this time.

Ramachandran has also criticised nomination of Jayarajan by the CPI-M.