‘Will go to Delhi on March 7 and return only after nomination date’; not contesting polls from Nemom, says K Muraleedharan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Speculations were rife that K Muraleedharan will be contesting the assembly polls from Nemom. K Muraleedharan rejected the speculations and said that he will not be in the fray. He said the reports that he will be contesting from Nemom is totally baseless and said that MPs will not contest the assembly elections. Muraleedharan said that he will be going to Delhi to attend the Parliament session on March 7 and will return only after the nomination date.

There were speculations that Vadakara MP Muraleedharan was being considered in Nemom. The NDA is presently considering Kummanam Rajasekharan to replace O Rajagopal in Nemom, the BJP's lone seat in Kerala.

The BJP won 14 of the 21 corporation wards in the constituency in local body elections. Came second in six places. The UDF and LDF are trying to field a strong candidate in the constituency which the leaders describe as BJP's Gujarat.

The name of V Sivankutty was mainly heard in the LDF. There were discussions in the Congress to field either Oommen Chandy or Shashi Tharoor in Nemom. It is heard that discussions regarding the Nemom seat were also held at the selection committee meeting convened today.