As the seat-sharing talks for the upcoming Assembly polls are progressing in the Left Democratic Front (LDF), a rift is out in the open between two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) [NCP(SP)] in the Elathur constituency in Kozhikode.
While the NCP (SP) Kozhikode district committee and a majority of ‘mandalam’ committees are opposed to fielding incumbent MLA and Minister for Forest A.K. Saseendran again from there, another section has demanded that he be retained.
However, NCP(SP) State president and Kuttanad MLA Thomas K. Thomas told The Hindu on Thursday that the party would take an “appropriate decision” after detailed discussions. “People may have their own ambitions and dreams. The NCP has a system to select candidates. We will choose a candidate for the seats allotted to us,” he said. It is to be noted that a similar situation had occurred ahead of the 2021 polls as well. However, Mr. Saseendran managed to hold on to his candidature with the support of NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The NCP had contested from Elathur, Kuttanad, and Kottakkal then.
Mr. Saseendran has been representing Elathur, a stronghold of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), since 2011. In 2021, he had defeated United Democratic Front-backed Independent Sulphikar Mayoori by a margin of 38,502 votes.
