Amid Cong tussle in Kerala, Sudhakaran keen to move from Parliament to Assembly

Kannur, March 13 (IANS) Senior Congress leader and Kannur MP K. Sudhakaran on Friday posted an emotional message on social media reaffirming his deep political and personal ties with Kannur, in a move widely seen as a signal of his determination to contest the upcoming Assembly elections despite emerging resistance within the party.

In a strongly worded Facebook post, Sudhakaran described Kannur as “the blood of my heart” and the local Congress organisation as his identity.

Recalling decades of violent political clashes in the district, he said he had stood in the forefront protecting party workers “from stones, knives, sickles and bombs like a mother hen shielding her chicks.”

The veteran leader also invoked the memories of Congress activists killed in political violence, saying their faces still appeared before him when he closed his eyes.

The post assumes significance as political activity intensifies ahead of the Assembly elections expected in April-May.

For months now, Sudhakaran has been publicly asserting that he intends to contest the polls from the Kannur Assembly constituency, signalling a return to state-level electoral politics after serving in Parliament.

Party insiders say the MP had stepped down last year as president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee following internal turbulence, and that he was informally assured by the national leadership at the time that he would be allowed to contest the Assembly elections.

However, the situation appeared to shift earlier this week when the central leadership of the Congress party indicated that sitting Members of Parliament would not be required to contest the state polls.

The remark has triggered speculation within party circles about whether Sudhakaran would be asked to remain in Parliament rather than enter the Assembly fray.

Against this backdrop, Sudhakaran’s decision to return to the state on Thursday night from New Delhi, even as Parliament remains in session and publishes the emotionally charged post, has drawn considerable attention in political circles in Kerala.

In the message, the Kannur MP asserted that he had never thought about his home or family while working to protect the movement and that every Congress leader in Kannur had grown politically under his guidance.

“There is no Kannur that I do not know, and no Kannur that does not know me,” he wrote, vowing to stand at the forefront to defend the party’s flag in the district.

Congress sources said the leadership is yet to take a final call on candidates, but Sudhakaran’s message has made it clear that he is unlikely to step back easily from the contest in his political stronghold.

His Parliament colleague and party General Secretary K.C. Venugopal, on Friday, did not see anything unusual in Sudhakaran’s return and said he has a few party programmes in Kannur.

--IANS