By Ashraf Padanna/Gulf Times Correspondent/Thiruvananthapuram


The Congress Party yesterday nominated a young professional to take on Communist Party of India (Marxist) veteran M Vijayakumar in the crucial Aruvikkara by-election in Kerala.
K S Sabarinathan, 31, is a senior manager of Tata Trust based in Mumbai and is the second son of former assembly speaker G Karthikeyan whose death three months ago necessitated the by-election.
The June 27 by-election is widely seen as a litmus test for the Congress-led government before general elections just a year away.
Vijayakumar is also a former speaker and former minister who belongs to the constituency and has strong family links there.
The decision on Sabarinathan was taken after efforts by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Congress state unit president V M Sudheeran to field Karthikeyan’s widow Dr M T Sulekha failed.
Talking to reporters later, Sulekha said she was “too old and weak” to contest an election and that her son would be acceptable to young people who aspire development and jobs.
She also rejected charges that her son was inexperienced saying he was active in student union activities as an undergraduate at the College of Engineering Trivandrum (CET) and while doing his master’s at the Management Development Institute, Gurgaon.
“He has been working amongst the tribals and the marginalised in states like Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and in the northeastern states as a Tata Trust official,” she said.
“He opted for this job to work among the needy shunning fat offers. Politics is in his blood.”
Sabarinathan, who was the president of the pro-Congress “Voice of CET” as a student, exuded confidence that the voters would support him to continue some 100 projects his father initiated in the constituency.
“I know the constituency very well and what happens is that at times, things which one never even dreams of become a reality. My father has been nurturing this constituency for the past 24 years and has done numerous development works,” Sabarinathan said.
“Today, the victory of Congress-led UDF (United Democratic Front) candidate is a necessity and it will enable me to complete projects that my father started.”
While Karthikeyan won five successive elections form the constituency (previously known as Aryanad) with a comfortable majority, the CPM candidate established lead in the segment in the last two parliamentary elections.
In 2011, Karthikeyan won the seat by 10,674 votes. But in last year’s parliamentary elections, the CPM candidate established a lead of 4,742 votes in this segment when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) almost doubled its vote share to 14,890.
Both Vijayakumar and Sabarinathan hit the campaign trail yesterday while the BJP is expected to finalise its candidate today.