TRIVANDRUM, 1 April 2004 — With the Congress party also releasing its list of candidates for all the 17 seats it contests in Kerala, battle lines are drawn for the May 10 elections in the southern state.
Opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidates for all the 20 seats are already in the fray. Congress party allies in the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF), Indian Union Muslim League (Ponnani, Manjeri) and Kerala Congress (Moovattupuzha), have also begun their campaigning. Congress President Sonia Gandhi approved the list mutually agreed by Chief Minister A. K. Antony and senior leader K. Karunakaran yesterday after prolonged discussions.
Padmaja Venugopal is the party candidate in Mukundapuram, represented by her father in the dissolved house. She is facing a stiff fight from former minister Lonappan Nambadan, an independent candidate fielded by Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and former Cochin Mayor Professor Mathew Pylee of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Calicut seat was left to V. Balram, who resigned his Wadakkancherry legislative assembly seat for Karunakaran’s son K. Muraleedharan.
Another Karunakaran nominee, the church-backed Dr Edward Edezhath, will contest in Ernakulam, where the party candidate was defeated by a CPI-M-backed independent, Dr Sebastian Paul in a recent byelection. Paul is seeking reelection. All the five Congress MPs in the resolved house-V. S. Sivakumar (Trivandrum), Kodikkunnil Suresh (Adoor), V. M. Sudheeran (Alleppey), A. C. Jose (Trichur) and Ramesh Chennithala (Mavelikkara)-are renominated.
Kerala unit Vice-President M. I. Shahnavas is the candidate for Chirayinkil while Bangalore-based businessman N. A. Mohammed was fielded in the northern Kasaragod constituency bordering Karnataka state. Besides Venugopal, there are two more women candidates: K. A. Thulasi (Ottappalam) and former state minister M. T. Padma (Badakara). Other candidates are Shooranad Rajasekharan (Quilon), Anto Antony (Kottayam), Benny Behanon (Idukki), V. S. Vijayaraghavan (Palghat), and Mullappally Ramachandran (Cannanore).
