PALAKKAD: P Sarin had come down heavily on the Congress leadership after Rahul Mankoottathil was announced as the UDF candidate for the Palakkad by-election. The Congress leaders also hinted that disciplinary action would be taken against Sarin for holding a press conference criticising the leadership. There were also reports that Sarin would be the LDF candidate. The CPM leaders are also not ruling this out. CPM leader AK Balan said that the LDF will use all possibilities to win the by-election.

When asked if the candidate would be of interest to disgruntled Congress members as well, Balan said the CPM candidate would be a person who would be well-accepted by the people as a whole and Sarin was the custodian of congress sanctums.

CPM state secretary MV Govindan also responded positively to Sarin. "There are reports of an explosion in the Congress. Beyond that, CPM as a party has not considered it as a subject. Let's wait and see. CPM has not held discussions with P Sarin." When asked what is the stand, Govindan said a stand can be taken only after understanding the matter.

There were reports that Sarin was unhappy with the announcement of Youth Congress state president Rahul Mamkootathil as the candidate in the Palakkad assembly constituency. Though Rahul was announced as the candidate, Sarin did not share the campaign poster on social media. This was the reason for the suspicion that Sarin was opposed to the selection of the candidate. P Sarin had demanded that the party should not be sacrificed in the interest of one person. "The candidature should be reconsidered and ready to be corrected, otherwise it is not Rahul Mamkootathil but Rahul Gandhi who is losing in Palakkad. The candidate discussion was a farce," Sarin said.