BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar, three of his predecessors, and Union Minister of State George Kurian were among those to figure in the party’s first list of 47 candidates for the Kerala Assembly elections set to take place on April 9.
Chandrasekhar will contest from the Nemom constituency, where BJP veteran O Rajagopal had in 2016 won the BJP’s first-ever Assembly seat in Kerala. Former Union minister and former party state president V Muraleedharan will contest from Kazhakkoottam, while former DGP R Sreelekha will be fielded from Vattiyoorkkavu. BJP has high expectations in these three seats in the Thiruvananthapuram urban area, where the party won the municipal corporation elections last year.
Union MoS George Kurian is the candidate in Kottayam district’s Kanjirappally, the seat that Alphons Kannanthanam had won in 2006 as a Left-backed Independent before he moved to the BJP. Senior party leader Sobha Surendran, who has a track record of increasing the BJP vote share, will be fielded in Palakkad, where the party has been the runner-up in recent elections. Former BJP state president K Surendran is the party candidate in Manjeshwar, where he lost the 2021 elections by just 855 votes. This is the fourth electoral battle for Surendran from the constituency, where the BJP has been finishing second in all Assembly elections since 2006. Surendran had lost the seat by a margin of just 89 votes in 2016.
Another former state president, P K Krishnadas, will contest in Kattakada for a third time. Senior leader C Krishnakumar will try his luck for the third time from Malampuzha, where he had finished second in the last two elections. While BJP state vice president Shone George will contest in the Christian heartland, Pala, his father, P C George, will contest in the nearby Poonjar seat. Party state general secretary Anoop Antony Joseph, another Christian face in the state leadership, will be fielded in Thiruvalla. Former three-term legislator S Rajendran, who recently moved to the BJP from CPI(M), will contest from Devikulam.
The of 47 candidates features four leaders from the Christian community and no Muslims.
Apart from the party’s state president, five out of 10 state vice presidents, and two of four state general secretaries are also in the fray.
Of the 47 seats, the BJP has high stakes in Manjeshwar, Malampuzha, Palakkad, Attingal, Vattiyoorkavu, Nemom, Kazhakootam and Kattakkada. These are the seats where the BJP had increased its vote share in the recent elections and finished second. The party has fielded seasoned candidates in these seats.
