BJP to contest 115 of 140 seats in Kerala; 'Metro Man' E Sreedharan to contest from Palakkad

BJP state president said that the party has given due consideration to minority communities and women

The BJP will field Kerala party president K Surendran for two seats - Manjeshwaram in Kasargod, where he lost by just 89 votes in the last Assembly election, and Konni in Pathanamthitta, where the party feels it has the advantage of the Sabarimala issue over the entry of women to the temple.

BJP former state president Kummanam Rajasekharan, who is also a former Governor of Mizoram, will contest from BJP's incumbent seat in Nemom in Thiruvananthapuram, where the Congress is also planning to field a high-profile candidate. Rajasekharan came second in the nearby Vattiyoorkavu constituency in the 2016 polls.

'Metro Man' E Sreedharan will be fielded from Palakkad where the BJP came second in the 2016 elections. Actor-turned Rajya Sabha MP Suresh Gopi will contest from Thrissur in central Kerala. He had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Thrissur and had lost.

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Surendran told reporters that the party has given due consideration to minority communities and women. Eight Christians and two Muslims are among the 115 BJP candidates. Alphonse Kannanthanam at Kanjirapally in Kottayam, former vice-chancellor of Calicut University Abdul Salam at Tirur in Malappuram and IPS-officer turned BJP leader Jacob Thomas at Irinjalakuda in Thrissur are among the prominent candidates from the Christian and Muslim communities.

Surendran also said that he is contesting from Manjeshwaram as last time he had lost by just 89 votes "due to malpractices and nexus by the UDF and LDF" and he is contesting from Konni, which is close to Sabarimala, owing to his "emotional attachment" due to Sabarimala women entry row. He also added that Sabarimala is still a big issue in Kerala. Surendran had secured 39,786 votes at Konni in the 2019 by-polls, compared to 16,713 by another BJP candidate in 2016 elections.

Other prominent persons in the list are former state president C K Padmanabhan against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at Dharmadam in Kannur, another former state president P K Krishnadas at Kattakada in Thiruvananthapuram, actor turned BJP leader Krishna Kumar in Thiruvananthapuram. Also, first engineer from the tribal community Manikuttan has been fielded by BJP at Mananthavady seat in Wayanad.

There are twelve women among the 112 candidates already announced by the party. Senior leader Sobha Surendran, who is not in good terms with the state leadership, has so far not been fielded. Candidates in a couple of key constituencies are yet to be announced. Speculations are rife that Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan will be fielded for Kazhakkoottam in Thiruvananthapuram.