Farmers Movement Archive

CPM to send John Brittas, V Sivadasan to Rajya Sabha

Thiruvananthapuram: The CPM state secretariat has decided to field former media adviser to the chief minister and managing director of Kairali TV John Brittas and CPM state committee member V Sivadasan as the party’s candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections. The decision was taken in the party state secretariat held on Friday. Even though the CPM also considered the names of all India Kisan Sabha leader Vijoo Krishnan and CPM leader Cherian Philip, it is learnt that a general consensus was on sending two new faces to the Upper House. Though there was a discussion on whether the outgoing Rajya Sabha MP of the CPM K K Ragesh should be given a second term, the party secretariat decided against it. After the LDF meeting, LDF convener and CPM acting state secretary A Vijayaraghavan said that the party decided on the candidates after examining the competence of all its potential candidates. Though the CPM secretary did not answer on why a second term was denied for Ragesh, he said that Ragesh was one of the best parliamentarians and he performed well like other communist leaders who were deputed for parliamentary responsibilities. He said that both the candidates who are being sent to the Rajya Sabha will display similar exemplary performance. He added that Brittas, who performed Leftist journalism well, was chosen in the wake of the party’s previous experiences of sending journalists to the upper house of Parliament. Both Brittas and Sivadasan hail from Kannur district. Sivadasan is presently an independent member of Kerala state electricity board (KSEB). Three RS seats from the state are falling vacant on April 21. The members who are retiring include IUML leader P V Abdul Wahab, CPM leader K K Ragesh and Congress leader Vayalar Ravi. While the LDF can win two seats, the UDF can win one. Outgoing MP P V Abdul Wahab, who is getting a consecutive term from the UDF, filed his nomination papers on Friday. The Rajya Sabha election will be held on April 30 in the wake of the high court order that the elections to the three vacant seats should be held before the term of the current assembly expires. The polling will be held from 9am to 4pm on April 30, on which the existing members of the assembly will vote. Though there are 140 seats in the assembly, only 131 MLAs will vote for the Rajya Sabha poll. While four MLAs Thomas Chandy, S Vijayan Pillai, C F Thomas and K V Vijayadas passed away during their tenure, three MLAs P J Joseph, Mons Joseph and P C George have resigned from the assembly. Two other MLAs K M Shaji and Karat Razak do not have voting rights as they are facing election-related cases.

The Times of India

2021-04-17

Thiruvananthapuram