CPI(M) to contest 84 seats in the Assembly polls:
Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 2 (UNI) Silencing minor coalition partners in the Left Democratic Front (LDF), the CPI(M), which headed the Front, today decided to contest eight more seats, taking to 84 the total number of seats it was going to contest in the coming Assembly elections in Kerala.
Talking to mediapersons after a meeting of the LDF here, Front convenor Paloli Mohammad Kutty said, in the remaining three seats, the Front would support independents and a unanimous decision in this regard was taken at the meeting.
Following disputes over sharing seats with the partners in the Front, the LDF could arrive at a consensus only on 129 seats and had kept aside 11 seats to be decided later.
The CPI(M) candidates for the eight seats would be Mr James Mathew (Irikkur), Mr Mathai Chacko (Thiruvambadi), Mr V D Devassi (Chalakkudy), Mr C M Dinesh Mani (Palluruthy), Mr C V Varghese (Idukki), Mr P K Gurudasan (Kollam), Mr V J Thankappan (Neyyattinkara) and Ms G Rajamma (Mavelikkara), while the CPI(M) - backed independts would be Mr P T A Rahim (Koduvally), Mr Cheriyan Philip (Kallooppara) and Mr K T Jaleel (Kuttippuram, he said.
''Though there were some differeces on seat sharing between the Front partners, it was sorted out and the decision was unanimous,'' he added.
The CPI(M), which had contested 74 seats in the 2001 Assembly election, would contest in 84 seats this time, most of them taking from its minor LDF partners.
However, the CPI had succeeded in getting 24 seats it had contested in the last elections.
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