A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s central leadership announced the list of candidates contesting for the upcoming Kerala Assembly polls, the candidate named for Mananthavady, a constituency reserved for Scheduled Tribes in Wayanad district, has declined the seat.
Speaking to The News Minute (TNM), Manikandan C, who hails from the Paniya tribal community, said that he was declared a candidate even though he had informed the party that he is not ready to contest.
Manikandan also took to social media, paraphrasing a quote by BR Ambedkar, after announcing that he will not be contesting as a BJP candidate.
“Even if I’m hanged upside down, I will not betray my people,” Manikandan (Manikuttan Paniyan on Facebook) said in his Facebook post with the image of Ambedkar, which is now being widely shared online. ("I tell you I shall not deter from my pious duty, and betray the just and legitimate interests of my people even if you hang me on the nearest lamp-post in the street,” Ambedkar had said.)