Thiruvananthapuram, June 4 The 41-member Congress-led opposition in the Kerala Assembly now has Uma Thomas after her thumping win from Thrikkakara Assembly constituency, making her the second widow in the opposition ranks whose husband was bete noire of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Uma, wife of two time former Thrikkakara legislator P.T.Thomas who passed away in December last year, won the bypoll with a massive margin of over 25,000 votes against her CPI-M rival Joe Joseph, an interventional cardiologist, when votes were counted on Friday.
And now when the Assembly meets later this month, Uma will join K.K.Rema.
Rema, who won with the support of the Congress-led UDF, is the widow of top notch former CPI-M leader Chandrasekheran who was brutally murdered near his house in Kozhikode in 2012.
Chandrasekheran left the party in 2008 and formed his own party Revolutionary Marxist Party turning into a thorn in the flesh of CPI-M.
As many as 11 people were sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with his murder, of which three were CPI-M leaders of the area.
Even after the brutal murder of Chandrasekharan with the alleged knowledge of the top CPI-M top brass, Vijayan called him a "renegade" which had come under huge attack from numerous quarters.
In the floor of the Assembly every time Rema gets up to speak, there is a complete silence as on a few occasions in the past one year, she has taken on Vijayan.
Likewise, P.T.Thomas, during the first term of Vijayan 2016-21 and till he passed away during Vijayan's second term, there were numerous occasions when a war of words broke out between two which, at times, had led to tumultuous situations.
Reacting to this, Uma said that she might not be as vociferous as her husband, she will be making her presence in the assembly in her own way.
"I have known Rema for a very long time and it's good that she will be there in the Assembly. I am happy that I will be able to move along with her," said Uma, adding she will be taking forward all unfinished tasks of Thomas.
Uma will be sworn in on the first day of the upcoming session of the Assembly scheduled to be held later this month.
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