By TCN News,
Kochi: The People’s Democratic Party announced its candidates to 16 Assembly constituencies yesterday. The party might contest in one or two constituencies more, said party working chairman Adv Akbar Ali in a press conference. The PDP will carry out its election campaign bringing the situation of Chairman Abdunnasir Maudany before the people. Efforts are on to include Maudany in Ahmedabad and Surat blasts by influencing those jailed in connection with them, he added.
The candidates are Andurkonam Sulfi (Nedumangad), Vallakkadavu Siddiq (Thiruvananthapuram), Kollam district president Mailakkad Shah (Eravipuram), Adv Vallikkunnam Prasad (Mavelikkara), State Council member TA Mujeeb Rahman (Kalamassery), Vice-president Muhammed Haji (Perumbavur), Adv Shameer (Guruvayur), NV Mani (Nattika), P Shamsudheen (Thrithala), Maseef Haji (Pattambi), Ali Kadambuzha (Kottakkal), Ibrahim Chemmad (Tirurangadi), Salam Munniyoor (Vallikkunnu), Bappu Puthanathani (Tirur), KP Basheer Haji (Tiruvambadi) and Shamsudheen Payyoli (Koyilandi).
The PDP is facing the elections in the midst of several problems. Party Chairman Abdunnasir Maudany is in Karnataka jail in connection with the 2008 Bengaluru blasts. He was arrested in August 2010 by the Karnataka police from Kerala. He was denied bail by the Karnataka High Court and earlier, lower courts. Maudany maintains that he was innocent of the charges against him. Party’s former working chairman and a senior leader who had been in the forefront of the party for a long time Mr Poonthura Siraj recently left the PDP. He was earlier suspended for an investigation as accusations were raised against him. But when the party announced that the accusations were baseless and asked him to come back to the organisational structure, Siraj left the party citing ‘unavoidable personal reasons’. Another senior leader is in jail in connection with a case of forgery.