Former Mizoram governor Kummanam Rajasekharan will contest from the Aranmula Assembly seat in the upcoming Kerala Assembly elections.
He figures in the second list of 39 candidates released Thursday.
Earlier, the , largely focusing on seats where the party sees a fighting chance. Prominent in the second list is B Gopalakrishnan, who has been given the temple town of Guruvayur.
Sitting MLA C C Mukundan, who quit the CPI after being denied a ticket, will be the BJP candidate in Nattika. M J Job, who left the Congress in protest against his party’s decision to back CPI(M) rebel G Sudhakaran in Ambalapuzha, will be fielded in Alappuzha as the BJP candidate.
Valsala Prasanna Kumar, who recently quit the Congress in Ernakulam, is the BJP candidate in Paravur, the seat of Opposition leader V D Satheesan.
After the first list was released, as several senior leaders, including Rajasekharan, did not figure in it despite the inclusion of seats where the party is mobilising its election machinery. Rajasekharan, who was state president during the 2016 Assembly elections, had lost from Nemom in 2021, then the BJP’s only sitting seat.
Rajasekharan has been active in Aranmula protesting a greenfield airport project, alleging it would destroy the region’s heritage and ecosystem. He will take on two-term legislator and Health Minister Veena George.
At the same time, resentment is brewing among a section of BJP workers in Ernakulam over the party’s failure to field its own candidate in Thrippunithura, where it has a strong presence. The BJP captured the Tripunithura municipality in the recent local body elections and secured over 15 per cent of the vote in 2021.
However, the seat has been given to Twenty20, floated by the KITEX group, which has fielded actor Anjali Nair. The BJP has also allotted Kodungallur, a temple town, to Twenty20 despite having secured 18 per cent of the vote there last time.
