The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday announced the first list of of 47 candidates for the upcoming Kerala Assembly Elections.
The saffron party fielded former Union ministers Rajeev Chandrasekhar and V Muraleedharan from Nemom and Kazhakoottam seats, respectively.
Assembly elections in Kerala will be held on April 9.
Kerala has 140 seats and Left leader Pinarayi Vijayan has been the chief minister since 2016, leading the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government.
According the list, P C George will contest the election from Poonjar assembly seat, R Sreelekha from Vattiyoorkavu and Padmaja Venugopal from Thrissur.
Whereas, K Surendran has been fielded from the Manjeshwar seat, Navya Haridas from Kozhikode North, Adv George Kurian from Kanjirappally.
R Rashmi will contest from Kottarakkara. Raji Prasad will join the fray from Kunnathur seat.
The party has fielded Sobha Surebdran from Palakkad seat and Kavitha KS from Sulthanbathery, a reserved constituency.
The CPI was the first to announce its list of 25 candidates minutes after the poll schedule was declared in the evening.
The party has fielded four incumbent ministers—G R Anil, J Chinchurani, K Rajan and P Prasad—in the polls.
For the Left parties, the upcoming polls are particularly significant in Kerala, their last major bastion.
The LDF won the 2021 Assembly elections with about 45.3 per cent vote share, securing 99 of the 140 seats and becoming the first government in four decades in the state to win consecutive terms. In the 2016 election, the LDF had polled roughly 43 per cent vote share and formed the government with 91 seats.
However, the Left's performance has been weaker in the Lok Sabha polls.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Kerala, the Left Democratic Front won one of the 20 seats and secured about 33.6 per cent vote share, while the Congress-led UDF won 18 seats.
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