The CPI(M) is likely to announce its list of candidates for the Assembly elections on Wednesday.
The party hoped to draw to close internal bickering prompted by speculative reports on candidate selection with the declaration. The final list would also ostensibly prime the party for a robust election campaign.
The scale of the seemingly spontaneous protests by CPI(M) workers at Ponnani in Malappuram against the probable candidature of P. Nandakumar appeared to have startled the party. The activists wanted the CPI(M) to name T. Siddique in Nandakumar’s stead.
Banner of revolt
CPI(M) cadres marched with an ominous banner: “The party would correct the leaders. The people would correct the party.” The optics of the ‘mutinous’ party workers, many of them Muslim women, did not augur well for the CPI(M)’s image of unity.
On Wednesday, the CPI(M) despatched party veteran Paloli Muhammad Kutty to conciliate the ‘mutinous’ workers. Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan and Mr. Siddique…