Thiruvananthapuram: A day after it announced list of 81 party nominees for the April 13 Assembly polls, Congress in Kerala faced open protests from unsuccessful ticket aspirants, including late leader K Karunakaran's daughter K Padmaja. However, KPCC President Ramesh Chennithala said the disgruntled sections in the party would be convinced about the compulsions the leadership had to go through during selection and all of them would be carried along in the campaign.
Padmaja Venugopal, daughter of late leader K Karunakaran, said in Kochi that the entire supporters of the party stalwart had been ignored in the selection. Former MLA Sobhana George, who was expecting party ticket from Chengannur, said she would contest from the segment as an independent candidate against the party's nominee and state Youth Congress president P C Vishnunath.
In Palakkad, A V Gopinath, also a former MLA, came out against the denial of ticket in the Palakkad segment to him. The seat, however, went to KSU president Shafi Parambil as part of the policy to accommodate more youths initiated by
AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi.
A surprising miss in the party list is KPCC spokesperson M M Hassan. Though he had chosen to remain silent, office bearers of 'Janasree,' a self-help initiative under his leadership, expressed resentment over his omission. A group of Youth Congress workers took out a march in Kozhikode to protest the denial of seat to former Youth Congress state president T Siddique.
Though Karunakaran's son K Muraleedharan has been given the comfortable Vattiyoorkavu segment in the capital to contest, his sister Padmaja Venugopal said in Kochi that the selection did not do justice to the memory of Karunakaran who always fought for his followers.
However, Padmaja, KPCC executive member who unsuccessfully contested from Chalakkudi Lok Sabha segment in 2004, said she would campaign for Congress candidates in all the 140 constituencies.
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