Kerala Congress-Mani announces sitting Kottayam MP Chazhikadan to re-contest

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 12 (IANS) Kerala Congress-Mani's sitting Kottayam MP Thomas Chazhikadan will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls from the same seat, the party announced on Monday.

The announcement was made at Kottayam by KC-M Chairman Jose K.Mani.

"Thomas Chazhikadan has been unanimously chosen to contest again from Kottayam," he said.

Chazhikadan, 71, is a chartered accountant by profession and was thrust into politics, when his brother Babu Chazhikadan, a candidate in the 1991 Assembly polls died after being struck by a lightning during his campaign.

It was after the tragedy, that Chazhikadan was brought into politics and he won all elections till 2011, when he lost to CPI-M candidate Suresh Kurup and was defeated again in the 2016 polls.

But in 2019 when the KC-M was the third biggest constituent of the Congress-led UDF, Chazhikadan was chosen to contest the Kottayam seat and he won. defeating the present state Ports and Cooperation V.N.Vasavan Minister with a margin of over one lakh votes.

Incidentally after the KC-M's iconic founder K.M.Mani passed away in 2019, the party's relations with the Congress got strained and soon after that Jose K.Mani faction joined the ruling LDF, led by the CPI-M.

Hence Thomas, who contested at the 2019 Lok Sabha polls for the Congress-led UDF, will be contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha polls as part of the LDF.

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