Thiruvananthapuram, March 18 (IANS) Kerala's octogenarian chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan would be contesting the April 13 assembly elections from the Mallampuzha constituency, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) announced Friday. This follows widespread protests after reports that Achuthanandan was being denied a ticket.

"V.S. Achuthanandan will obviously be the team leader. He has always been part of the decision making process in our party... don't try to separate him," Pinnarayi Vijayan, CPI-M state secretary, said while announcing the list of candidates for the forthcoming polls.

Achuthanandan represents Mallampuzha in the current assembly.

The decision to drop the 87-year-old chief minister from the list of candidates was taken at a marathon four-hour meeting of the CPI-M's 15-member state secretariat Wednesday and was endorsed by the 81-member state committee late in the evening, party sources had said.

The controversial decision led to protests across the state.

In 2006 as well, Achuthanandan was denied a party ticket but following a huge public outcry, the national leadership had to reverse its decision. He led the Left Front's poll campaign and went on to become the chief minister.