Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan filed his nomination from his sitting seat Dharmadom, while the UDF is unsure of who to field against him. He filed the nomination in the presence of Assistant Development Officer Bevin John Varghese, who is the selector. Pinarayi Vijayan was accompanied by Dharmadom constituency representative P Balan, CPM Kannur district secretary MV Jayarajan and CPI national council member CN Chandran.
Meanwhile, the UDF is unsure about who to field against Pinarayi Vijayan, especially with his last win with more than half the vote share. Initially, the Democratic Front had asked Forward Bloc leader G Devarajan if he would contest against the Chief Minister, but that didn’t materialise. Following this, reports claimed that the UDF would field someone from the families of the people killed by left members. The alliance had considered someone from Shuhaib’s family or someone from the families of the victims of the Periya double murder. However, apart from the consideration, the discussion did not follow through.
In 2016, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan won from Dharmadom with 56.84% of the vote share and a large majority of 37,000 votes. Pinarayi’s opponent at the time was Congress leader Mambaram Divakaran. This year, the BJP had fielded CK Padmanabhan as their candidate from Dharmadom. He had already contested from Kunnamangalam in 2011 and 2016, coming in third each time. He had also contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections but lost against K Sudhakaran in Kannur.
