Kochi: The two-member commission appointed by CPM to probe the Thrikkakara bypoll defeat has submitted its report. According to the report, lapses of leaders possibly led to the loss.
Central committee member AK Balan and state committee member TP Ramakrishnan were the members of the probe commission. As per the commission's view, the appearance of a wall writing for KS Arunkumar, a probable candidate for LDF, before the party's official announcement created confusion.
It is learnt that the district leadership will evaluate whether wall writing appeared due to factionalism.
It may be noted that even before the official announcement of the LDF candidate, a wall writing for Arunkumar appeared. Left profiles on social media started campaigning for Arunkumar. Posters are widely shared and the workers welcomed the decision to field a youth, who had been popular through TV debates on the SilverLine project. However, CPM later declared Dr Jo Joseph as its candidate. CPM had blamed the media for causing confusion.
LDF tasted loss in the election despite a high-voltage campaign by top brass CPM leaders, including chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The popular narrative over the candidacy of Uma Thomas in Thrikkakara bypoll was that the Congress picked her up to gain an edge with the sympathy wave from the death of her husband PT Thomas, which actually necessitated the election. However, she not only breached PT Thomas’ victory margin in the constituency but also crossed Congress veteran Benny Behanan’s lead of 22,406 votes.
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