Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi to vet Congress list

Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress central election committee will take a final decision on the candidates for the four seats about which a consensus could not be reached during the screening committee meeting in New Delhi on Thursday.
The decision was left to the central committee  following the intervention of Congress president Sonia Gandhi who met Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, home minister Ramesh Chennithala and KPCC president V.M. Sudheeran separately.

The row is over the candidature of  Benny Behanan, K. Babu, K.C. Joseph and Adoor Prakash  from  Thrikkakara, Tripunithura, Irikkoor and Konni  respectively.
However, the screening committee decided that Parassala sitting MLA A.T. George will contest again.  Earlier, Mr Sudheeran  had opposed his candidature.

Candidates’ panels have been prepared for 10 seats, including the four about which Mr Chandy and Mr Sudheeran have locked horns. P.T. Thomas has been included for Thrikkakara,  P. Mohanraj  for Konni, N. Venugopal for Tripunithura and Sajeev Joseph and Satheeshan Pacheni for Irrikoor along with the sitting MLAs.

Though V. Swaminathan was considered for Kongad, later Pandalam Sudhakaran was chosen. The other candidates proposed are Mariyamma Cherian  from Ranni, P.M. Suresh Babu  from Kozhikode North, Shantha Jayaram from Ottappalam and K. Ajithkumar from Chirayinkeezhu.

Earlier,  the Chief Minister stuck to his stand of not making any changes about the disputed seats. Prior to the screening committee meeting, (I) group leaders held a meeting  attended by Ramesh Chennithala, K.C. Venugopal, K. Muraleedharan and K. Sudhakaran. AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik, who is charge of the state,  held a meeting with A.K. Antony. In the morning, Parassala MLA A.T. George had come out against  Sudheeran saying that he
had not faced  any allegations. He also had threatened to speak  his mind if he was not made a candidate.