Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 8 (IANS): In a relief to the Kerala state unit, the Congress high command has nixed certain party MPs' plans to contest the 2021 Assembly elections in the coastal state.

This comes after the state unit conveyed to the central leadership that the party would find it hard to retain the Lok Sabha seats in case these MPs opted to contest the Assembly polls.

It is pertinent to mention here that Congress MLAs K Muraleedharan, Adoor Prakash and Hybi Eden had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Even PK Kunhalikutty of the All India Muslim League had resigned his Assembly seat to contest the Lok Sabha polls.

While Kunhalikutty has again voiced his intention to contest the coming Assembly elections after he quit the Lok Sabha, Congress state leadership is opposed to a similar request from its MPs for the same.

Interestingly, the UDF led by the Congress had lost the Vattiyoorkavu seat held by Muraleedharan to CPI-M's VK Prasanth in the bypolls, whereas the Konni Assembly seat held by Adoor Prakash was wrested by CPI-M's KU Jineesh Kumar. The Congress could retain only the Ernakulam seat held by Hybi Eadn.

This forced the Congress high command to rethink the whole issue.

It was learnt that Congress MPs like K Muraleedharan, K Sudhakaran, Benny Behanan, and Adoor Prakash were eyeing party tickets for the Assembly elections.