The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sought to make a forceful entry into the Lok Sabha election fray in Kerala by announcing its candidates for 12 parliamentary seats in the State on Saturday.
The panel of candidates cleared by the party’s national leadership emerged as a fusion of high-profile leaders, relatively new faces, and experimental nominees.
The candidates included Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar (Thiruvananthapuram), Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan (Attingal), actor Suresh Gopi (Thrissur), M.T. Ramesh (Kozhikode), Shobha Surendran (Alappuzha), Anil K. Antony (Pathanamthitta), C. Krishnakumar (Palakkad), Abdul Salam (Malappuram), Niveditha Subramanian (Ponnani), Prafulla Krishna (Vadakara), M.L. Ashwini (Kasaragod), and C. Raghunath (Kannur).
Notably, the BJP did not announce its candidates for four constituencies. They included the Wayanad constituency represented by Rahul Gandhi. In 2019, the BJP had accorded the seat to its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ally Bharat Dharma Jana Sena.
However, the BJP might commandeer the seat to field a candidate with a national profile and offer another segment, possibly Kottayam, to the BDJS. Such a move, however, will hinge on whether Mr. Gandhi will contest again from Wayanad.
The BDJS will contest from four parliamentary segments.
The BJP has pointedly fielded two leaders who recently defected from the Congress. They include Mr. Antony, son of Congress Working Committee member A.K. Antony, and Mr. Kumar, a former Congressperson from Palakkad.
However, Mr. Antony’s candidature has reportedly riled P. C. George, who recently merged his Kerala Janapaksham (Secular) outfit with the BJP.
Mr. George told reporters that the people of Pathanamthitta had anticipated his candidature. He was a familiar face in the constituency, unlike Mr. Antony.
Mr. George also alleged that the NDA ally and SNDP union leader Tushar Vellappally scuttled his chances in Pathanamthitta.
BJP State president K. Surendran said the BJP would address Mr. George’s concern. He said the party was yet to finalise its candidates in four more seats.
The BJP also sent envoys to assuage Mr. George and prevent an undesirable fallout between him and the BDJS, a key backward-class NDA ally.
Mr Surendran said the Lok Sabha elections would be a game-changer in Kerala politics. The NDA would score a double-digit win. It would spell the beginning of the end of the “Congress-Communist revolving door politics” in the State.
