THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The allegation which surfaced in the last assembly bypolls among the Congress workers in Vattiyoorkavu has again re-emerged now and that is ignoring local leaders. Vattiyoorkavu where a strong triangular fight is going to be witnessed, the local party workers have already raised voice against the leadership for attempting to field candidates from outside the constituency, by sidelining the popular leaders in the district.

Vattiyoorkavu is the sitting seat of CPM MLA V K Prasanth. Congress in its draft list of candidates has named Venu Rajamony to be Vattiyoorkavu’s candidate, which has invited the wrath of local congress leadership. Even in the survey conducted by AICC representatives, a majority voted for UDF convenor of Vattiyoorkavu Mandalam, D Sudarshan for candidature in the constituency. Workers have alleged that the state leadership is ignoring deserving local leaders from the constituency.

Even K Muraleedharan former Congress MLA of Vattiyoorkavu and Shashi Tharoor, MP of Thiruvananthapuram has supported D Sudarshan’s candidature in Vattiyoorkavu. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala has not aired his opinion on the issue so far.

BJP is considering to field their district president V V Rajesh in Vattiyoorkavu. After the delimitation of constituencies in 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram North constituency changed to Vatiyoorkavu. Local leaders hold the view that as the constituency is a UDF dominated area, only local workers know the true picture and only they can ensure UDF’s victory in the constituency.

Though the party is considering many candidates like R V Rajesh, Jyoti Vijayakumar, Veena S Nair, at the regional level D Sudarshan’s name has the support of UDF workers also. Sudarshan who belongs to the Ezhava community is an acceptable person among other communities as well. In the last assembly bypolls, when K Mohankumar was picked up as UDF’s candidate, similar dissenting voices had erupted in the party.

#SHASHI THAROOE #K MURALEEDHARAN #LDF #UDF