A battle royale is shaping up at Vatakara in Kozhikode district after the news came that K.K.Rema of the Revolutionary Marxist Party ( RMP)will contest the April 6th assembly polls, with the full support of the Congress-led UDF.
Rema is the widow of murdered former CPI- M leader T.P.Chandrasekheran.
RMP general secretary N.Venu on Tuesday said the decision has been made and it has also been decided to take the support of the UDF, which has been offered.
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“Since this is a political fight and in the present circumstances, we have decided to field Rema and will take the support of the UDF, that has been offered,” said Venu.
RMP also clarified that they are not an ally of the UDF, but will only take the support of the UDF.
For the past few weeks, there was some confusion as the Congress party was asking Rema to contest the polls and after initially agreeing, she turned Covid positive and she decided she will not contest.
But after Congress made it clear that their support is only for Rema, it was after long deliberations that the RMP decided to field Rema.
Incidentally, Rema had contested as an RMP candidate from the same constituency and had finished third.
In the 2016 polls, it was won by C.K.Nanu of the Janata Dal ( S) and M.Chandran of the party led by media baron M.P.Veerendra Kumar under Janata Dal (U) came second. At that time, Kumar’s party was an ally of the Congress-led UDF.
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This time after the erstwhile JD (U) was wound up and in its place came the Loktantrik Janata Dal ( LJD) – they have left UDF and have become the new ally of the ruling Left.
The CPI-M last week sprang a surprise by giving the seat to LJD and M.Chandran is trying his luck this time, much to the anger of the JD (U), who lost a sitting seat to their arch-rival.
Chandrasekaran, 51, who launched the RMP, was hacked 51 times by assailants on May 4, 2012, when he was returning home on his motorcycle in his hometown near Kozhikode.
In the case, 11 people were given life imprisonment, of which three were middle-level CPI-M leaders, and the demand for probing the conspiracy behind the murder is still in the court.
Rema has time and again taken on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for calling her husband a renegade and the campaign is likely to see sparks fly as Rema has the full backing of the Congress-led UDF.
SOURCE-IANS
