Innocent now persona non grata for CPI-M committee

Thiruvananthapuram, March 6 (IANS) Ace comedian Innocent, who turned giant killer in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from the Chalakudy Lok Sabha seat, is this time a persona non grata for the Chalakudy CPI-M parliamentary committee, who have suggested two other names for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The committee apparently felt that Innocent’s performance as a Lok Sabha MP was not up to the mark.

Innocent was the president of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists. He was fielded by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) as an independent candidate to take on the Congress veteran and sitting Lok Sabha member P.C. Chacko.

Innocent beat Chacko by 13,884 votes.

On Wednesday, members of the Chalakudy CPI-M parliamentary committee informed the top brass of the CPI-M, including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and state party secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, that they would like to field former party legislator Saju Paul or former Rajya Sabha member P. Rajeev.

A few months back Innocent had made it clear that he would not contest again, but after talks on deciding candidates for the elections began, he evinced interest again.

According to party sources, the Chalakudy committee told the top brass that if Innocent is fielded again then the responsibility should be borne by the state committee of the CPI-M.