KOTTAYAM: CPM district committee member Jake C Thomas has become the leftist candidate in the Puthupally by-election. Jake has been given priority in the potential list of three individuals prepared by the district committee. The others are Raji Zakaria and K M Radhakrishnan. The CPM state secretariat meeting today will assess the list and reach an agreement. Tomorrow, the candidate will be announced by the Puthupally constituency committee and the district committee.

Jake's name has been under consideration since the outset. Given the limited time to introduce a new person instead of Jake, who has contested against Oommen Chandy twice in the constituency, the district committee prioritized Jake's name. Jake also held precedence in the local committees. Both Jake and Raji Zakaria's names were brought up in the booth secretaries' meeting yesterday.

The CPM state secretariat had previously instructed Jake who narrowed Oommen Chandy's lead to around 9,000 votes in the previous election, to focus on Manarkad. Jake follows the Jacobite faith.

Oommen Chandy's close associate and Congress district panchayat member Nibu John's attempt to sway the LDF candidate failed, which suddenly made finding another candidate challenging. Following Oommen Chandy's passing Nibu, who had been estranged from him, abstained from the meeting of people's representatives called by the Congress in Puthupally. Subsequently there was a strong push for the left to run independently.

However, the local CPM unit in Puthupally opposed this idea. After a campaign emerged that Nibu was being considered by the CPM against Chandy Oommen, the top leaders of the Congress intervened on Wednesday night and convinced Nibu.