Vattiyoorkavu, Aroor seats to be swapped

Thiruvananthapuram: There are efforts between the two factions within the Congress to swap the Assembly seats of Vattiyoorkavu and Aroor. If Vattiyoorkavu seat, originally belongs to ‘I’ group, the rival ‘A’ group has got stakes in Aroor Assembly seat. The lone woman leader in the high profile Political Affairs Committee meeting, Shan-imol Usman, who has leanings towards Opposition Leader Ramesh Chenni-thala’s ‘I’ group, is allegedly eyeing the Aroor seat.

Shanimol had put up an impressive performance in the recent Lok Sabha elections from Alappuzha LS seat, and also from Aroor Assembly segment. This has put the onus on 53-year-old Shanimol to contest from the Aroor by-election seat. She was defeated by CPM’s A.M. Ariff by 10,474 votes to make Alappuzha the only seat won the Left in Kerala. Immediately after the Pala bypoll, the Ele-ction Commission is expected to announce dates for the bypoll in the remaining five Assembly seats, Vattiyoorkavu, Konni, Aroor, Ernakulam and Manjeshwaram (Muslim League’s seat). Currently, lobbying for the seats is in full swing with hopefuls already bombarding senior leaders like CWC leaders A.K. Antony and Oommen Chandy and Chennithala as well as KPCC chief Mullapally Ramachandran. A senior Congress MP told DC that an agreement has been reached between the top brass of the KPCC leadership on swapping Vattiyoorkavu and Aroor Assembly seats between ‘I’ and ‘A’ groups.

“The Muslim community in the State is already peeved with the Congress for not considering a leader from their community. Now this is a right opportunity for Shanimol to be considered from Aroor by-election seat. If that’s the case, then ‘A’ group leader and KPCC organising general secretary, Thampanoor Ravi will be considered from Vattiyoorkavu seat,” said the senior Congress MP.

Former Vattiyoorkavu MLA K. Muraleedharan who has since become the Vatakara MP has definitely got a say in zeroing in on the candidate. But it is not going to be easy for the KPCC leadership to pacify seat aspirants as already a handful of leaders have eyed the Vattiyoorkavu seat. Prominent hopefuls include former Kollam MP N. Peethambara Kurup, Thiruvananthapuram DCC president Neyyati-nkara Sanal and State Human Rights Commi-ssion member K. Mohan Kumar who was also the former Thiruvanant-hapuram North MLA.

Senior Congress leader A.K. Antony has already landed in the State where he is scheduled to attend the campaigning in Pala on Wednesday.