Congress names Oommen Chandy’s son as candidate for Puthuppally bypoll on Sept 5

The Congress Tuesday named Chandy Oommen, son of late former chief minister Oommen Chandy, as its candidate for the upcoming bye-election in the Puthuppally Assembly constituency.

The announcement came within hours of the Election Commission declaring the bye-election in Puthuppally along with six other seats across the country on September 5. The bypoll was necessitated following the demise of Oommen Chandy, who represented the seat for a record 53 years over 12 terms. The veteran Congress leader served as the state’s chief minister twice, from 2004 to 2006 and again from 2011 to 2016.

Following the announcement by the party, Chandy Oommen, who is currently the chairman of the national outreach cell of the Youth Congress, told reporters, “The party has handed me a big responsibility and I will try to fulfill it. As you know, my father represented this seat for 53 years. It’s a big challenge to match such a feat. I thank the party leadership for this opportunity. The development works done in this constituency by the Congress and its MLA for all these years will help it in this election.”

Oommen has been active in the state as well as the national Youth Congress units for quite some time and was a permanent participant in the Bharat Jodo Yatra undertaken by Rahul Gandhi from Kanyakumari to Kashmir last year. Following the death of his father on July 18, Congress had indicated that someone from his family will contest the bypoll.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M) state committee is expected to convene later this week to decide its candidate in the bypoll. In 2021 Assembly elections, Oommen Chandy had defeated Jaik C Thomas of the CPI(M) by 9,044 votes. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate N Hari came third with less than nine percent of the votes polled.