BJP won't field candidates who lost in previous polls

The BJP has decided not to field the same candidates at two Assembly seats in Kerala, in which the party came second in 2016 Assembly polls.

As the candidates for bypolls to five seats in Kerala were announced on Sunday, party Kerala state general secretary K Surendran, who lost the Manjeswaram seat in Kasargod by just 89 votes in the 2016 Assembly polls, was fielded at Konni in Pathanamthitta.

Ravish Tantri Kuntar, who contested the Kasargod Lok Sabha seat in the Lok Sabha election, was fielded at Manjeswaram.

Former Mizoram governor Kummanam Rajasekharan, who came second at Vattiyoorkavu seat in Thiruvananthapuram in last Assembly polls, was not fielded anywhere, despite strong pressure to filed him at Vattiyoorkavu this time also. Instead, BJP district president S Suresh will contest at Vattiyoorkavu.

There were high expectations among the BJP cadre that the party could win Manjeswaram and Vattiyoorkavu by fielding Surendran and Kummanam respectively. Hence the candidate selections triggered resentment.

At present, the BJP has only one MLA in Kerala, that too for the first time.