Expelled Congress leader Sarin’s chances of becoming LDF pick in Palakkad bypoll brighten as CPI(M) district secretariat meets

Expelled Congress leader P. Sarin may emerge as LDF candidate in Palakkad Assembly bypoll in Kerala, challenging Congress-BJP nexus.

Expelled Congress leader P. Sarin’s chances of emerging as the Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate in the Palakkad Assembly bypoll in Kerala appeared to brighten by the minute on Friday (October 18, 2024).

Mr. Sarin told reporters in Palakkad that CPI(M) district secretary E. N. Suresh had contacted him. “Mr. Suresh said he had proposed my name as the party’s candidate for the Palakkad Assembly bypoll in the district secretariat. Now it is for the CPI(M) higher committees to decide”, he said.

Minister M.B. Rajesh said the CPI(M) was keen to “pre-empt votes of Congress discontents flowing to the BJP” in the Palakkad Assembly constituency. “Hence, the CPI(M) will likely field a candidate who can harness disgruntled Congress votes in Palakkad to the LDF fold”, he said. 

CPI(M) Central committee member A. K. Balan also appeared to suggest that Mr. Sarin might emerge as the LDF’s pick for Palakkad.

Mr. Balan told reporters in Palakkad that the LDF would frame Mr. Sarin’s grave accusation that the Congress had aided the BJP in the Thrissur parliamentary segment as a quid pro quo for helping Shafi Parambil in the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency in 2024 elections as the main political talking point in the Palakkad Assembly bypoll. 

“We knew the Congress had struck a deal with the BJP in Vadakara. Now, we have an important witness in Mr. Sarin, a guardian of Congress secrets, to build the LDF’s case against the Congress-BJP unholy nexus before the electorate in Palakkad”, Mr Balan said. 

Mr. Balan dismissed questions about Mr. Sarin’s about-turn on the latter’s past hostility to the CPI(M). He said the CPI(M) discerned “no ideological inconsistency” in welcoming a former foe to the LDF fold.