BJP National General Secretary Vinod Tawde on Saturday released a 195-strong list of candidates fighting the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The list, first to be announced by the ruling party, premiered the names of 12 candidates fighting from Kerala. While veteran MT Ramesh was fielded from Kozhikode, Anil Antony, son of former Defence Minister and Congress veteran AK Antony, was fielded from Pathanamthitta.
As expected, popular Malayalam actor Suresh Gopi was fielded from the Thrissur constituency while Union Minister of State Rajeev Chandrasekhar was declared as the party's candidate from Thiruvananthapuram. Congress leader Shashi Tharoor is the sitting Thiruvananthapuram MP. Veteran communist leader Pannian Ravindran is also in the fray from the seat.
BJP Kerala state unite chief K Surendran's name didn't feature in the 12-member list. There were reports that Surendran had confirmed that he would not contest the upcoming polls. The southern state has a total of 20 Lok Sabha seats.
LOK SABHA POLLS 2024: KERALA BJP CANDIDATES FIRST LIST:
Palakkad: C Krishnakumar
Thrissur: Suresh Gopi
Alappuzha: Sobha Surendran
Pathanamthitta: Anil Antony
Thiruvananthapuram: Rajeev Chandrasekhar
Kozhikode: MT Ramesh
Malappuram: Dr Abdul Salam
Ponnani: Nivedita Subrahmanian
Attingal: V Muralidharan
Vadakara: Praful Krishna
Kasaragod: ML Ashwini
Kannur: C Raghunath