The ruling Left Democratic Front in Kerala led by the CPI (M) has announced its candidates for the bye-elections for five Assembly constituencies to be held on October 21.
As expected and as discussions had been indicating, Thiruvananthapuram Corporation Mayor VK Prasanth is the candidate for the Vattiyoorkavu constituency in Thiruvananthapuram.
The young Prasanth is known as an able administrator and he had been in the news for reaching out to the flood-hit people in August for being one of the first to work tirelessly for collecting and providing relief material.
The other constituencies that are going for bye-polls are Manjeswaram in Kasargode, Konni in Pathanamthitta, Ernakulam and Aroor in Alappuzha.
While Sankar Ray has been picked for Manjeswaram, advocate Manu Roy is the candidate for Ernakulam, advocate Manu Pulikkal for Aroor and KU Janeesh Kumar will contest from Konni.
Sankar Ray is the district committee member of the CPI(M) in Kasaragod and belongs to the linguistics minority (of a few people who speak a particular language) in the northernmost district.
Both Jinesh Kumar and Manu C Pulikkan belong to the DYFI (Democratic Youth Federation of India) — the youth wing of the CPI (M). Manu Roy is the son of veteran journalist KM Roy. He is the only independent candidate backed by the CPI (M) in the list.
"In Vattiyoorkavu, we are hopeful of giving a good fight this time as the party had been pushed to third place in 2016 Assembly elections," CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has said.
All elections are an assessment of the government, he said, while speaking to media in Thiruvananthapuram to announce the names of the candidates.
He also said that the Left will be careful in gaining votes from community organisations like the SNDP and NSS, as the CPI(M) doesn't view them as outfits that oppose the Left.
"The bye-elections verdict won't affect the stability of the incumbent Left government. Even the elections to school and colleges are the assessment of a ruling government. Whatever the verdict, it won't affect the SC verdict on allowing women of menstruating ages into Sabarimala temple," he said, when asked if Sabarimala would be an issue to be highlighted during the bye-elections.
The bye-elections have been necessitated as legislators of the constituencies except Manjeswaram have been elected to the Lok Sabha. By declaring the list with all new faces, the CPI (M) stayed true to its pattern of announcing candidates ahead that of rival political fronts in elections.