KK Rema likely to contest from Vadkara

The state secretariat of the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) will meet here on Saturday to take a final decision on the candidature of KK Rema, the wife of RMP founder TP Chandrasekaran, who was killed in Vadkara for the assembly elections.

The two party leaders, Ms. Rema and the party’s state secretary N. Veenu has been weighing her options ever since the Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) have approached the RMP leadership to field a common candidate for the Left Democratic fight (LDF).

The United Democratic Front (UDF) preferred the withdrawal of Ms. Rema in the hopes of influencing voters in neighboring Koilandi, Kutiyadi, Nadapuram and Kunnamangalam assembly constituencies. The IUML-Congress alliance plans to highlight political violence in Kannur and Kozhikode assembly constituencies as an issue. CPI (M) dissident Chandrasekaran was killed on May 4, 2012 by a seven-member gang at Onchim in Vadakara.

Ms. Rema told Hindu That she was ready to enter the electoral fray again and with the support of the UDF in Vadkara. “But the party also has to take a final decision,” she said. The UDF had worked with the RMP in the local body elections held in December for electoral understanding.

The nine-member state secretariat of the RMP was scheduled to meet last week, but the meeting had to be called off as Ms. Rema tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and was admitted to a private hospital in Kozhikode city.

Ms. Rema had unsuccessfully won more than 20,000 votes in the 2016 assembly elections. Then he had to face the candidates of socialist rivals – Janata Dal (S) in LDF and Janata Dal (United) in UDF. The seat was won by JD (S) CK Nanu by a margin of 9,500 votes.

She also faced two other candidates with the same name. One of them also had an initial KKR, while the other had TP as the initial. All three contested as independents as the RMP was not a recognized state party.

Now, the Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD), which has been included in the LDF fold, has been offered the Vadkara seat, and the party has decided to field its district president Maninath Chandran.