T’puram: With CPM set to relax its two-term norm, the party’s Thiruvananthapuram district committee decided to recommend the state leadership to field all 10 sitting MLAs of the district in assembly elections. The decision was taken at the district secretariat meeting attended by party state secretary M V Govindan on Wednesday.The state leadership is not keen on the candidacy of party district secretary V S Joy in Varkala, his sitting seat. For the time being, CPM has no strong candidate to replace Joy in Varkala and hence decided to field all sitting MLAs from the district.Earlier, the party discussed finding a candidate to replace V Sivankutty in Nemom mainly due to his health issues. However, district leadership is now considering only Sivankutty in Nemom, which he wrested from BJP in the 2021 election. If Joy contests in Varkala, the party will appoint an interim district secretary.LDF won 13 of the 14 assembly seats in Thiruvananthapuram in the previous assembly election. UDF won Kovalam. CPM won 10 seats while CPI won Nedumangad and Chirayinkeezhu and Janadhipathya Kerala Congress (Antony Raju) won Thiruvananthapuram.An adverse court judgment against Antony Raju in an evidence-tampering case has put his political future in the balance and CPM leaders have stepped up their demand to take Thiruvananthapuram seat. CPM district committee placed the demand before the state committee and leaders have also demanded that the party take over Kovalam. Janata Dal had contested in Kovalam last time.In previous assembly elections, CPM denied seats to several senior leaders while implementing a policy that restricted MLAs to two consecutive terms. Now, CPM is focusing on the victory prospects of candidates as it aims to retain power at any cost.
