RMP to support Congress candidate in Kerala's Vadakara

K.K. Rema, the widow of T.P. Chandrasekharan, the slain leader of a breakaway group of the CPI-M, Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP), said on Sunday that the RMP will support the Congress candidate from Vadakara constituency, as a murderer should not win from here.

While the Congress is yet announce its candidate for the Vadakara Lok Sabha seat, the CPI-M sprang a surprise when it decided to field former party legislator P. Jayarajan from here. Jayarajan has been accused of murder and was sent to jail in two different murder cases which were currently in the court.

Chandrasekharan, who launched the Revolutionary Marxist Party in 2009, was hacked to death by some assailants on May 4, 2012, when he was returning home in his hometown near Kozhikode.

A court has sentenced 11 people, including 3 CPI-M leaders, to life imprisonment in the case. The demand to probe the conspiracy behind the murder is still in the court.

Rema told the media that RMP will not contest the Vadakara seat, and will, instead, support the Congress candidate here.

"We will ensure that the last vote is cast, and cast against Jayarajan. We have decided to support the Congress because a murderer should not win from here. The tears of people like me and others are against Jayarajan. We will do everything to defeat him," Rema said.

The RMP has been contesting elections in Kerala, especially in the northern districts, without aligning with any of the three political fronts in the state.

Rema had contested the 2016 Assembly polls from the Vadakara constituency but lost to C.K. Nanu of the Janata Dal (Secular) despite managing over 20,000 votes.

The sitting Lok Sabha MP from Vadakara, state Congress President Mullapally Ramachandran, has announced that he won't contest the elections this time.

For the CPI-M, the poll battle in Vadakara could well turn out to be the most prestigious one, as Jayarajan was the Kannur district party Secretary, which incidentally was the home district of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

In the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, Jayarajan's sister P. Sathee Devi won from Vadakara.

--IANS

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