The Congress on Tuesday brought out its first list of 55 candidates . In the 140-strong Assembly, the Congress, the leading partner of the Opposition UDF bloc, will contest around 90 seats.
Prominent names in the first list include Opposition Leader V D Satheesan, former Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Sunny Joseph, former president K Muraleedharan, and vice president P C Vishnunath. While Muraleedharan will contest from the Vattiyoorkavu, currently held by the CPI(M), the others are vying to retain their seats.
The candidates include all sitting legislators, except Eldose Kunnappilly, who represents Perumbavoor and K Babu, who opted out of the race.
Late CPI(M) veteran V S Achuthanandan’s personal assistant, A Suresh, who joined the Congress on Tuesday, is the candidate in Malampuzha, the seat that VS had represented from 2001 to 2021. Former three-term CPI(M) legislator Aishya Potty, who had recently joined Congress, will contest from Kottarakkara; Palakkad MP V K Sreekandan’s wife, K A Tulsi, has been fielded in Kongad; and former MP Ramya Haridas, who had lost the last Lok Sabha election and an Assembly by-election in 2024, is the party candidate in Chirayinkeezhu. Another former MP, T N Prathapan, also figured in the list. He will contest from Manalur in Thrissur.
The Congress has also fielded a celebrity — comedian and actor Ramesh Pisharody — in Palakkad, which had been represented by Rahul Mamkootathil, who was removed from the party following his alleged involvement in multiple cases of sexual misconduct. In Palakkad, where the BJP was the runner-up in the previous Assembly election, the CPI(M) is also scouting for an Independent, instead of taking on the BJP challenge head-on. Senior BJP leader Sobha Surendran is the NDA candidate in Palakkad.
From Kottayam, the Congress has fielded senior leader Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, who has won all his last seven electoral battles. Another senior leader, A P Anil Kumar, is gearing up for his sixth electoral fight in Wandoor.
Among the 55 candidates, only eight are women. In the outgoing Assembly, the Congress had only one woman legislator, Uma Thomas.
Although two days have passed since the declaration of the election schedule, with Kerala set to go to the polls on April 9, Congress leaders have not yet been able to reach a consensus on candidates in the remaining seats.
In the first list of candidates, the Congress has not announced candidates for Kannur, Konni and Alappuha, the seats where MPs K Sudhakaran, Adoor Prakash and K C Venugopal, respectively, are keen to fight to enter the state Assembly. Sudhakaran and Prakash have reportedly been insisting on getting a ticket to contest the Assembly election.
