Amid the growing rift within the party over the candidature of A.K. Saseendran, Minister for Forest and Wildlife, the Central Parliamentary Board of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) [NCP(SP)] on Monday announced the candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections in Kerala.

As per the decision taken in consultation with the State unit of the party, Mr. Saseendran will be fielded in Elathur, sitting MLA Thomas K. Thomas in Kuttanad, and K.T. Mujeeb in Malappuram.

This is the fourth consecutive term that Mr. Saseendran is contesting from Elathur, from where Mr. Saseendran has been winning since 2011. Earlier, the Kozhikode district committee of the NCP(SP) had opposed the candidature of Mr. Saseendran and recommended party district secretary Mukkam Mohammed for the seat. A resolution in this regard was also adopted at the district-level election committee meeting held recently. However, the State leadership of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) was in favour of the candidature of Mr. Saseendran.

On Monday, a district convention held at the Town Hall in Kozhikode again endorsed Mr. Mohammed’s name. Though Mr. Mohammed, also the district convener of the LDF, made a passionate and emotional speech criticising the alleged efforts by certain people in the party to deny him ticket citing his religious identity, the NCP(SP) national leadership chose to ignore all that. Earlier, a majority of the ‘mandalam’ committees of the party had supported Mr. Mohammed’s candidature.