The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] on Friday nominated journalist John Brittas and V. Sivadasan, CPI(M) State committee member, as its candidates for the Rajya Sabha election.
Mr. Brittas is currently the managing director of the CPI(M) controlled Kairali Television channel. He also spearheads the channel's political programming and is part of its commentariat.
Mr. Brittas had worked in New Delhi as correspondent of CPI(M) party organ Deshabhimani and later the Kairali television.
He had arrived at the helm of the channel in 2003 and still remains in the position. Mr. Brittas took a brief sabbatical in 2011 to work for a private network. In 2016, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan nominated Mr. Brittas as his media advisor.
V. Sivadasan is the former president of the Students Federation of India. He had successfully defended a doctoral thesis on the role of media and Malayalam literature in spotlighting the State's agrarian issues. Both are from Kannur.
Three Rajya Sabha seats from Kerala had fell vacant after the respective terms of K.K. Ragesh of the CPI(M), Vayalar Ravi of the Congress and P.V Abdul Wahab of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) had ended.
Announcing the nominations, CPI(M) acting State secretary A. Vijayaraghavan said the party had settled for persons with experience, parliamentary talent, and political commitment to push the party's national agenda.
He said Mr. Ragesh had acquitted himself well as an MP and was at the forefront of the farmers’ agitation in New Delhi.
Meanwhile, Mr. Wahab filed his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha poll on Friday. Mr. Brittas and Mr. Sivadasan are expected to do so soon.