All these have seen how the Congress party encouraged G Karthikeyan’s wife or son to contest the election when there was a need for a by-election due to his sudden demise.
Token picture.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s son-in-law and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) national president PA Mohammed Rias is contesting from Beypore on a CPM ticket in the assembly elections. Whereas Late K. Karunakaran’s sons Congress leaders Muralitharan and Padmaja Venugopal are contesting assembly elections from Neom and Thrissur respectively. Pinarayi Vijayan is trying his luck from Dharmadam seat in Kannur.
In more than 20 seats out of 140, the children of former ministers and MLAs of the ruling CPI (M) -led LDF and the opposition Congress-led UDF are betting their luck this time. Political parties claim public acceptance of these candidates when they field such candidates.
Former Mahila Morcha president of the Congress Latika Subhash got her shaved in protest over not getting the ticket from the UDF. Not only this, she also resigned from the post of Speaker and now she is contesting as an independent candidate from Ettumanoor Assembly Constituency in Kottayam.
Former Ministers MK Munir (Koduvli), Shibu Baby John (Chitra) and father of Anoop Jacob (Pirvom) were also ministers from the UDF. KS Sabarinathan (Aruvikkara), son of late President G Karthikeyan, is also the star kid in the electoral fray. Advocate and political critic A Jaishankar said that the process of putting relatives in the electoral fray has increased in Kerala. This trend is more in UDF. In the previous UDF ministry, six ministers were the sons of prominent politicians.
Jaishankar said that all these have seen how the Congress party encouraged G Karthikeyan’s wife or son to contest the election when there was a need for a by-election due to his sudden demise. Although his son and sitting MLA KS Sabarinathan was not keen on entering politics at that time, the party forced him to enter the electoral fray.
read this also: Kerala Election: ‘I will make Palakkad one of the best cities in the country, I am not a leader by birth… but learning politics’ – Metro man E Sreedharan
