Thomas Issac & G Sudhakaran Photo: C Biju
Kozhikode: Five ministers and 17 sitting MLAs will not contest the Assembly election if CPM strictly implements the 2- term policy. Out of the 11 CPM ministers in the Pinarayi Vijayan cabinet, 5 ministers have contested 2 or more times in the Assembly election. Out of this, Ministers Thomas Isaac, AK Balan have contested 4 times and G Sudhakaran and C Raveendranath have contested 3 times continuously in the election. Thomas Isaac has won twice from Alappuzha and twice from Mararikkulam.
AK Balan has won twice from Kuzhalmannam and twice from Tharoor constituencies. EP Jayarajan has completed 2 terms in Mattannoor. If the party decides to elevate EP Jayarajan as the party secretary, he will not contest the election. In that case KK Shailaja will shift from Koothuparamba to Mattannur. Minister C Raveendranath has completed 2 terms from Puthukkad and one term from Kodakara.
Among the MLAs, Raju Abraham MLA has completed four terms from Ranni constituency. A Pradeep Kumar (Kozhikode North), KV Abdul Khadar (Guruvayoor), BD Devassy (Chalakkudy), Ayisha Potty (Kottarakkara), S Rajendran (Devikulam) and S Sharma (Vypin) have completed 3 terms.
K Kunjuraman (Udma), James Mathew (Thalipparambu), TV Rajesh (Kalyasseri), C Krishnan (Payyannur), Purushan Kadalundy (Balusserry), K Dasan (Koyilandy), P Sreeramakrishnan (Ponnani), Suresh Kurup (Ettumanoor), R Rajesh (Mavelikkara) and B Sathyan (Attingal) have also completed 2 terms.
The final decision regarding who will contest in the election will depend on who will be granted concession in this regard by the party in order to retain the constituencies.
After the by election, CPM currently has 58 MLAs and 5 independent MLAs in the Assembly.