Antony backs Sudheeran, crucial panel meet today

Thiruvananthapuram: An AICC election committee meeting to be chaired by party president Sonia Gandhi on Friday will finalize the Congress candidates for the assembly election.
It has become almost certain that some MLAs' heads will roll as KPCC president V M Sudheeran's proposal to keep those facing allegations away from the fray has found the party high command's support.
Ministers Adoor Prakash and K C Joseph are likely to lose their seats while the election committee will take a decision on Benny Behanan and K Babu. A survey conducted by the AICC had also found that these leaders have a negative image.
Senior leader A K Antony on Thursday extended his support to Sudheeran, in a big endorsement to his arguments. Antony also maintained that all those who faced serious allegations should stay off the election and his opinion is expected to have a crucial role in the election committee meeting. Only chief minister Oommen Chandy and Sudheeran will be attending the meeting from Kerala and the latter is likely to get the support of Rahul Gandhi and Antony.
Chandy, meanwhile, is firm that his men should not be removed from the candidates' list. He is learnt to have told Antony that he would prefer not to contest if the AICC was going to insult him by favouring Sudheeran's decision. Ramesh Chennithala, who did not take a stand in Chandy's support, is learnt to have tried to persuade the chief minister to go for a compromise with Sudheeran. Sources said Chandy fumed at Ramesh for this and maintained that he was not going to accept Sudheeran's formula.
Interestingly, it was Chandy who came to the aid of Adoor Prakash, a known 'I' group leader, while Ramesh who heads the group chose not to utter a word when the demand to remove him from the list came up. Sudheeran has decided to submit a panel each for the 32 seats on which a decision has to be taken. Candidates have been finalized in 50 seats. Chandy is learnt to have opposed including more names in the seats of K C Joseph, Benny Behanan, Adoor Prakash and K Babu.