THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The BJP leadership has not been able to find the candidates for the by-polls to be held in five places in the state. The senior state leaders of the party have opted out from contesting the by-polls in five places.

Vattiyoorkavu, Konni and Manjeswaram are the three places where the party has high winning prospects. What is troubling the party is that no top leaders are ready to contest. An emergency meet of state bearers will be convened in Kochi today to take a decision on the candidates. The core committee will be convened first and then the meet of office bearers.

A section of leaders of the state committee want Kummanam Rajashekaran to contest from Vattiyoorkavu. The Thiruvananthapuram district committee too is of the same opinion. However, the party is in a dilemma after Kummanam Rajasekharan announced that he was not interested in contesting. Meantime, there is a move to woo him via RSS. K Muraleedharan of the Congress won from the constituency in the last two terms. In the triangular fight held in Vattiyoorkavu, Muraleedharan defeated Kummanam for 7,622 votes.

Meantime, in the Lok Sabha polls, Kummanam was defeated by Shashi Tharoor for nearly one lakh votes. In this situation it is doubtful how the RSS will put pressure on Kummanam. If Kummanam is not ready to compete, state general secretary M T Ramesh will be considered. A decision will be taken at the meet today.

In the meanwhile, the BJP is trying hard to field congress leader Subbaiah Rai in Manjeswaram. Name of Subbaiah Rai, son of former MP Rama Rai, was heard for the last Lok Sabha polls but at the last minute Rajmohan Unnithan was fielded. He was resentful at that. Steps to bring him to the BJP camp is active. In addition to Subbaiah, the names of Satheesh Bhandari, Raveesha Tantri and district president Sreekanth are also heard. Chances are more for Bhandari.

K Surendran and Shoba Surendran are considered for Konni. Surendran has expressed his unwillingness to fight.