THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Protests have ramped up against Congress leader P C Vishnunath in Vattiyoorkavu. The local leadership of the party has said that they won’t accept anybody from outside the constituency. KPCC member D Sudarshan has also said that if the state leadership is not ready to reconsider their decision then the aggrieved leaders will field a rebel candidate.

Many party workers committed resignation protesting against the candidature of K P Anil Kumar from the constituency. Following this, the declaration of candidates for the constituency was postponed at the last minute. In the subsequent discussions held on Sunday evening, a common consensus was formed among leaders to field P C Vishnunath as the party’s candidate in Vattiyoorkavu. However, now the local leaders have expressed dissent on this decision also.

The workers in the constituency have expressed their interest to the state leadership. D Sudarshan said that everybody wants to field the candidate proposed by the workers. “The leadership is still not trying to understand the reality. Organized efforts are being made in the party, to field candidates from outside concerned constituencies. When such a person’s candidature was rejected yesterday, today they have again fielded a similar candidate. It’s a sad state that party leaders are not understanding the local aspirations. If the leadership is behaving like this, then the local leadership might field a different ‘Congress candidate’, ” he added.