BJP names 112 candidates for Kerala election; 'Metro man' E Sreedharan to make poll debut from Palakkad

The BJP, which is set to contest 115 of 140 seats in the upcoming Kerala Assembly election, released its list of 112 candidates on Sunday. ‘Metro man’ E Sreedharan will make his electoral debut from Palakkad in the 6 April Assembly polls, while BJP state president K Surendran will contest from two constituencies, including Konni, which was the epicentre of the Sabarimala stir in 2018, party general secretary Arun Singh told the media in Delhi. Sreedharan had joined the BJP recently. Follow LIVE updates on Assembly election here The BJP has given 25 seats to its four NDA allies — BDJS (Bharath Dharma Jana Sena), AIADMK, Janadhipathya Rashtriya Sabha (JRS) and Kamaraj Congress. Two film actors — Suresh Gopi (Thrissur), who is a Rajya Sabha MP and Krishnakumar (Thiruvananthapuram central) — are also in the fray. Former Union minister KJ Alphons will try his luck from Kanjirapally, while former DGP Jacob Thomas is the saffron party’s candidate from Irinjalakuda. Surendran, who had led the Sabarimala agitation in 2018 against the entry of women of all ages to the Lord Ayyappa temple following the Supreme Court verdict, has been fielded from Manjeshwaram in Kasaragod district and Konni in Pathanamthitta district. He had unsuccessfully contested the 2016 Assembly polls from Manjeshwaram and had lost by a meagre 89 votes. Former Mizoram governor Kummanam Rajashekharan has been fielded from Nemom, the lone seat won the BJP had won in the 2016 Assembly polls. Former Union minister O Rajagopal was elected from the seat in the 2016 polls. Senior leaders CK Padmanabhan will take on Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan at Dharmadam in Kannur, while PK Krishnadas will battle it out at Kattakada in Thiruvananthapuram. Well-known academician and retired Calicut University vice-chancellor Dr Abdul Salam has been fielded from Tirur. Manikuttan, the first Tribal engineer from the state, will be in the fray from Mananthavady (reserved) seat. The saffron party has fielded 12 women candidates, however, it has not given a seat to senior leader Shobha Surendran. Here is the list of candidates released on Sunday: