A large group of people, including women, carrying CPIM flags and a banner that read “party will correct the leaders; people will correct the party,” marched through Ponnani town in Malappuram district on Monday against the proposed candidature of party state committee member and CITU leader P. Nandakumar.
CPI-M (Photo: Twitter)
Though the CPI-M is yet to release its final list of candidates for the Kerala Assembly polls, anger is brewing in the party over the name of proposed candidates and seat-sharing.
The state witnessed open protests by CPI-M workers in Ponnani and Kuttiyadi in addition to strong resentment within a section of supporters over exclusion of leaders with proven mass appeal.
The party has decided to implement the two-term norm in selecting candidates taking a cue from West Bengal, where CPI-M was washed out after a decades-long rule.
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A large group of people, including women, carrying CPI-M flags and a banner that read “party will correct the leaders; people will correct the party,” marched through Ponnani town in Malappuram district on Monday against the proposed candidature of party state committee member and CITU leader P. Nandakumar.
The protesters demanded that local leader TM Siddique be made the candidate in Ponnani. In the last Assembly polls Speaker Sreeramakrishnan was elected from Ponnani. Interestingly, the protests in Ponnani are not for Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan but for party local leader TM Siddique.
Similarly CPI-M workers in Kuttiady constituency in Kozhikode district took to streets on Monday protesting against party decision to allot the seat to Kerala Congress (M), which has a minimal presence in the constituency. Party workers demanded area committee member K P Kunjammad Kutty as CPI-M candidate in Kuttiyadi.
It may be noted that protests from party workers in Palkkad resulted in replacing state law minister A K Balan’s wife P K Jameela in Tarur.
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