The mother of two minor sisters who died in suspicious circumstances after suffering a sexual assault at Walayar in Palakkad district in Kerala announced her plans to contest as an independent candidate against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at his sitting seat Dharmadom as part of her protest.
With Congress yet to announce a candidate for the seat, there are strong speculations that the party may back her. BJP fielded party former state president C K Padmanabhan in the constituency.
The sisters aged 13 and nine were found hanging in their house at Walayar in Palakkad district in January and March 2017 respectively. Both the sisters were found to be sexually abused.
Even as a POCSO court acquitted all the accused, the Kerala High Court ordered a re-trial and the state government later sought a CBI probe. The case assumed political significance as the accused were CPM local activists.
The mother of the sisters has been staging an indefinite stir seeking action against the police officials who allegedly sabotaged the case. She had tonsured her head recently and many other women also tonsured their head in support of her.
Meanwhile, in a damage control move, Congress fielded one more woman candidate for the Assembly polls in Kerala. Veena Nair, a former state office bearer of Youth Congress, was filed at Vattiyoorkavu in Thiruvananthapuram where former Thiruvananthapuram mayor V K Prasanth and BJP district president V V Rajesh are in the fray.
She had contested in the local body election in 2015 but got defeated.
There was widespread resentment in the Congress as only nine women were fielded by the party. Mahila Congress state president Lathika Subhash, who was denied a seat, had tonsured her head in protest at the Kerala PCC office and decided to contest as an independent candidate from Ettumanoor in Kottayam district.
The Congress is also witnessing internal protests in many constituencies over candidate selection.
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