BJP announces names for 125 seats in Kerala; Sreedharan to contest from Palakkad
BJP's list of candidates also include Rajya Sabha MPs KJ Alphons and Suresh Gopi.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday announced the list of candidates for the upcoming Kerala assembly elections and said that the party will contest from 115 seats out of the 140 seats. BJP's national general secretary while announcing the list of candidates said the rest of the 25 seats will be left for its allies.
Arun Singh also announced that the state BJP chief K Surendran will be contesting the elections from two constituencies. Surendran will contest the polls from Kasaragod’s Manjeshwar and Pathanamthitta’s Konni. ‘Metro Man’ E Sreedharan who recently joined the BJP is contesting from the Palakkad assembly constituency. Singh said, “ E Sreedharan will contest the polls from Palakkad Assembly constituency. Former state BJP chief Kummanam Rajasekharan will be contesting from Nemom seat in the upcoming elections.” Sreedharan will go head to head with young Congress leader Shafi Parambhil, who is the current MLA from the Palakkad constituency.
BJP has also named former union minister KJ Alphons who will be contesting from the Kanjirrapally assembly constituency. The party has also named former governor of Mizoram and state BJP chief Kummanam Rajasekharan as its candidate from the Nemom constituency. The party has also decided to give tickets to former Kerala DGP Jacob Thomas who will contest from Irinjalakuda and actor Suresh Gopi who will be contesting Trichur assembly constituency. Suresh Gopi and KJ Alphons are current members of the Rajya Sabha from the state.
The BJP’s list of candidates contains 12 women candidates. Kerala will go to the polls on April 6 and will see a three-way contest fought between the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), led by Communist Party of India(Marxist)(CPI(M)), the United Democratic Front led by Congress and the BJP. The BJP targeted the government recently over the recent gold and dollar smuggling cases and appealed to people to oust the Pinarayi Vijayan-led government.
(with inputs from Ramesh Babu)
