V Joy to contest, A A Rahim named new CPM dist secy in Tvm

Thiruvananthapuram: A A Rahim is the new CPM district secretary of Thiruvananthapuram. His appointment comes in the wake of the party's decision to field the present district secretary, V Joy, again in the Varkala constituency in the assembly election.The decision to appoint Rahim in place of Joy was taken at the district secretariat meeting held on Sunday, in the presence of CPM state secretary M V Govindan. Rahim is the national president of DYFI and a Rajya Sabha member.
The party district secretariat observed that Joy has the best winning chance in Varkala and hence, replacing him with another candidate will not be wise. The district leaders are of the view that to ensure a third consecutive LDF govt, winnable candidates should be fielded in the district.With this, the CPM district committee decided to field all the 10 sitting MLAs in the polls. The sitting MLAs who will contest are: V Sivankutty (Nemom), V Joy (Varkala), O S Ambika (Attingal), D K Murali (Vamanapuram), Kadakampally Surendran (Kazhakkoottam), V K Prasanth (Vattiyoorkavu), G Stephen (Aruvikkara), C K Hareendran (Parassala), I B Satheesh (Kattakada) and K Ansalan (Neyyattinkara).Any change in this list given by the district committee will be decided by the party state secretariat, which will finalize the candidates. However, party sources are of the view that all the sitting MLAs will contest. The state committee will meet on March 5, in which a final decision is expected.Though Joy, Surendran, Satheesh, Murali, Hareendran and Ansalan have completed two consecutive terms as MLAs, the party decided to give exemption to them considering their ability to win the respective seats.