Thiruvananthapuram: Congress looks for strategy to wrest weak' seats
The UDF had wrested Peravoor, Kuthuparamba and Azhikode from the CPM.
Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress has mostly been fighting a losing battle in 23 Assembly constituencies across the state and has never won from 15 of them.
The unlucky seats for it are Payyanur, Taliparamba, Dharmadam, Thalassery and Kalliasseri (Kannur), Uduma, Kanhangad, Trikaripur (Kasargod), Nadapuram, Balussery, Beypore (Kozhikode), Ottapalam, Malampuzha and Alathur (Palakkad), Chelakkara (Thrissur), Perumbavoor (Ernakulam), Udumbanchola (Idukki), Vaikom (Kottayam), Aroor (Alapuzha), Ranni (Pathanamthitta), Kunnathur and Punaloor (Kollam) and Vamanapuram (Thiruvananthapuram).
Congress leaders say that they have better chances if freshers and Youth Congress leaders are fielded from these seats. Payyanur, Taliparamba, Dharmadam, Thalassery and Kalliasseri are CPM strongholds. A KPCC general secretary belonging to Kannur said that the KPCC leadership has never taken any efforts to win these seats.
Kannur Congress legislator A. P. Abdullakutty told DC that he would write to the Chief Election Commissioner to hold elections in Kannur district separately. In the CPM bastions, polling agents will be absent for fear of their lives. KPCC general secretary Sajeev Joseph who had contested against Mr P. Jayarajan in Kuthuparambu in 2006 was beaten up. Mr Rajmohan Unnithan (Congress) was defeated by Mr Kodiyeri Balakrishnan by over 10, 000 votes in that year. But in the 2001 Assembly elections Mr Sajeev Maroli could better the Congress vote margin by over 7000 votes.
Except Thalassery municipality, the rest of the panchayats are CPM forts. Similarly, except Dharmadam and Muzhappilangad, the remaining areas are also the strongholds of CPM.
The UDF had wrested Peravoor, Kuthuparamba and Azhikode from the CPM.
“From two seats, the UDF could garner three more which shows that if we work hard, we can win more constituencies. I have long been demanding to the KPCC leadership and also to the local Congress leaders that elections in Kannur district should be held separately,” he said.