Veteran CPI(M) leader V S Achuthanandan today said it was for the people and party to decide whether he should contest in the assembly polls to be held next year.
"Whether I should contest or not, it will be as per the wish of the people and parties (of the Left Front), a beaming Achuthanandan told reporters here.
Asked who will lead the Left Front in the polls, 92-year-old Achuthanandan, leader of the opposition in the assembly, said "who will lead the Front? People and prasthanam (party) will decide", he said giving enough hints that he would be very much in the fray.
Achuthanandan, who led the LDF campaign in the recently held local body polls in which the CPI(M) headed front had emerged victorious giving a drubbing to the ruling Congress led UDF, had once again proved that he was the leader of the masses.
The veteran leader's remarks comes close on the heels of CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury hailing Achuthanandan's contribution to the party saying "it is something our generation should learn from him". The party had not yet fixed a retirement age, he had said in Delhi recently.
Earlier, CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran had stated that Achuthanandan should lead the Left Front during the assembly polls and it will do good for the Front, which has not been taken kindly by the Marxist party.
CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said in Kozikode today that coalition partners should give the party freedom to choose their candidates.
CPI(M) state committee will decide who will contest the polls, he said.
CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and former state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, an Achuthanandan beta noire, who stepped down after completing three consecutive terms in the party, is widely speculated to lead the Front in the assembly elections.
