Kerala polls: Congress fields C Raghunath against Pinarayi Vijayan in Dharmadam

Just a day before the deadline for submitting a nomination in the Kerala assembly poll ends, C Raghunath filed his nomination as Congress candidate to contest in Dharmadam against CPI (M) strongman and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Though earlier, Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) was planning to support the mother of Walayar siblings who is fighting the polls as an independent candidate.

Later Congress state leadership and AICC decided to field their own candidate to take on Vijayan after the BJP and Left in their campaign alleged that 'Congress does not even have candidates to fight Vijayan."

K Sudhakaran, the face of the party in Kannur rejected the proposal to contest from Dharmadam after meeting with District Congress Committee (DCC).

Speaking to reporters in Kannur, Sudhakaran said that KPCC and the High Command had asked his opinion to contest in Dharmadam but he refrained from it.

"I have conveyed my decision not to contest in Dharmadam to the state leadership and also to the High Command. Since I have to campaign across the Kannur district, being working president of KPCC it's not practical to be a candidate at Dharmadam. Also, there was hardly any time for enough preparation as it was asked to me two days back," he said.

C Raghunath is Kannur District Congress Committee secretary and the nomination was filed before the official announcement by the party.

Meanwhile, the mother of Walayar siblings also filed her nomination papers on Thursday to fight against Kerala Chief Minister.

Vijayan who faced the last assembly polls in 2016 from Dharmadam won with a huge majority of 36,905 votes against his rival Mambaram Divakaran of Congress.

Earlier, Vijayan was elected to the Kerala Assembly in 1970, 1977 and 1991 from Kuthuparamba while in 1996 he was elected from Payyanur.

The election for 140-member Kerala Assembly will be held on April 6. The counting of votes will take place on May 2.

(ANI)

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