Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 16 (IANS): Two days after the Congress released its list of 86 candidates for the upcoming Kerala Assembly elections, senior party leader and MP K. Sudhakaran on Tuesday expressed his displeasure over the list, saying that he has lost both "hope" and "confidence".
"I feel that the party's high command has been misled by the state leaders. Those who are responsible include Oommen Chandy, Ramesh Chennithala and AICC General Secretary K.C.Venugopal," said Sudhakaran, the Lok Sabha Member from Kannur.
Taking a dig at Venugopal, Sudhakaran alleged that the AICC General Secretary has played truant and sneaked in candidates in the name of having party's high command support.
"Never before such a thing has happened, when the local leadership and the district committee was not taken into confidence while naming the candidates. No opinion was sought from us," added the Congress MP.
In the 140-member Kerala Assembly, the Congress which speraheads the United Democratic Front (UDF) is contesting 92 seats, leaving the rest to its allies.
Sudhakaran is at present one of the few working president's of the party's Kerala unit.
On Monday, aggrieved president of the Women's wing of the Congress party in Kerala- Lathika Subhash, resigned from all the posts in the party and announced her decision to contest as an independent candidate from the Ettumanoor constituency in her home district at Kottayam.
On Sunday, minutes after the list of candidates was announced in Delhi, she got her head tonsured.
Chennithala added that never before has the party did such an exercise to select its candidates.
"60 per cent of the candidates are new faces and such a thing has never happened before. Really do not know on why Sudhakaran is saying like this. He is a senior leader and we have huge liking towards him," said Chennithala.
Meanwhile Sudhakaran said he is yet to think if he needs to contest against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan from the Dharmadom constituency in Kannur.
The Congress party is yet to announce its candidate in Dharmadom and is likely to take place in a day.