The Congress’s hunt for a strong candidate to wrest the lone Assembly seat represented by the BJP in Kerala appeared to suffer a setback on Saturday with Oommen Chandy declaring he would not be deserting his traditional seat of Puthupally.

The former chief minister, however, did not clarify whether he might contest also from Nemom, the seat in Thiruvananthapuram that the BJP’s O. Rajagopal won in 2016.

Earlier, several thousand party workers and local people had besieged Chandy’s home in Puthupally, Kottayam, opposing any move to shift him.

They chanted slogans such as “We won’t let Oommen Chandy go” as state and district unit leaders huddled inside the house with Chandy.

State Mahila Congress president Lathika Subhash, one of Chandy’s diehard supporters, had arrived early to persuade him to stick to Puthupally.

A few hours later, Chandy emerged amid the din and declared, amid loud cheers: “The high command yesterday cleared my name for Puthupally.”

On whether he might be fielded from Nemom too, he said: “I cannot give a final word on this.”

Chandy insisted that neither the high command nor the state leadership had asked him to contest from Nemom.

“The uproar witnessed here today was based on a misunderstanding. Nemom has been a subject of serious discussion for several days. There have been reports about who would contest and who wouldn’t,” he said.

However, media reports had earlier quoted state leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala as saying Chandy could be fielded from Nemom since the party needed a senior candidate to wrest the seat. Congress sources on Saturday suggested Chandy may have put his foot down.

The Congress’s candidate list for the April 6 Assembly polls is likely to be released on Sunday.

After several rounds of meetings in Thiruvananthapuram, Chandy and other state leaders had moved to Delhi for discussions with the high command but returned to Kerala on Saturday morning without finalising the full list.

Apart from Chandy, those who had been tipped to be fielded from Nemom were party general secretary K.C. Venugopal, Chennithala, and Lok Sabha members Shashi Tharoor and K. Muraleedharan.

The constituency is set for a triangular contest. While the CPM has re-nominated the defeated 2016 candidate, V. Sivankutty, the BJP is considering fielding former state president Kummanam Rajasekharan or film actor Suresh Gopi from Nemom. The nonagenarian Rajagopal has opted not to contest polls.

Chennithala told reporters: “You won’t be disappointed once the names are announced.”

Muraleedharan said: “I’ve not been asked to contest from Nemom (but) will take up any responsibility the high command entrusts to me.”