Kannur (Kerala) | Senior CPI(M) leader and former Kerala health minister K K Shailaja on Monday said that the party's decision to field her from Peravoor Assembly constituency was in line with its policy of not repeating candidates who have won two consecutive terms in a seat.
Currently representing Mattannur constituency in the state assembly, Shailaja has been shifted to Peravoor as the Marxist party announced its candidates list for the April 9 Assembly polls on Sunday.
Soon after the announcement, the senior leader began her campaigning in the constituency and described Peravoor, a sitting seat of the Congress party, as her home turf.
Responding to questions from reporters, Shailaja said she was contesting from Peravoor as per the party's directive and appealed to the electorate to give her an opportunity to serve them.
She said Peravoor was the place where she was born and brought up and expressed confidence that the people of the constituency would support her in the upcoming election.
She said Peravoor is where she had spent her entire student life till marriage.
While replying to a question, she said, as per the CPI(M) policy, if a person continuously wins from a party's stronghold for two times, it should be handed over to a new person.
The CPI(M) leader also noted that the party has made an exception in the case of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, with the Politburo granting him special permission to contest again from Dharmadam.
Shailaja said she had been able to carry out several development initiatives in Mattannur constituency.
She added that the situation in Peravoor had changed considerably after the constituency delimitation and that the political landscape was different compared to the time when she had earlier won from the seat.
On the delay in the Congress candidate announcement, Shailaja said it was an internal matter of the party and declined to comment further.
KPCC chief Sunny Joseph is the sitting MLA in Peravoor and he is likely to contest there this time also.
Shailja had won Peravoor seat in the 2006 Assembly polls and lost the segment to Sunny Joseph in 2011
