Sitting MLA and popular Mollywood actor Mukesh is likely to be fielded by the CPI-M to recapture the Kollam Lok Sabha seat. The 67-year-old Mukesh was reelected from the Kollam assembly seat in 2021. Kerala's ruling party believes Mukesh can retake the seat from N K Premachandran of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) -- a friend turned foe of the CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala. Kollam district is a bastion of the Left parties.
CPM's Kollam district secretariat body decided to put forth Mukesh's name in the presence of finance minister KN Balagopal, Manorama Online said in a report. Balagopal is the former district unit chief of the party and had unsuccessfully contested against Premachandran in 2019.
Meanwhile, a similar meeting held at the neighboring Pathanamthitta district decided to field senior leader and former finance minister Dr TM Thomas Isaac. Anto Antony of the Congress is the sitting Pathanamthitta MP. Apart from Isaac's, no other names were actively discussed, the news report said.
The suggestions will be discussed in the district committees before being officially presented to the CPI-M state committee.
Alappuzha MP AM Ariff is the only communist party representative from Kerala in the Lower House. In the 2019 polls, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) had bagged 19 of the 20 seats in the southern state.
