Lok Sabha Elections 2024: BJP announces 12 Kerala candidates; Rajeev Chandrasekhar to take on Shashi Tharoor
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced candidates for 12 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala, including high-profile contests such as the Thiruvananthapuram constituency where Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar will challenge sitting MP Shashi Tharoor of the Congress.
FollowThe Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced candidates for 12 seats in Kerala. One of the key battles to watch out for will be for the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat where Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar will be taking on sitting MP and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor.
The 12 BJP candidates from Kerala in the first list include:
* Kasaragod: M L Aswini
* Kozhikode: MT Ramesh
* Malappuram: Dr Abdul Salam
* Ponnani: Niveditha Subramanyam
* Palakkad: Krishna Kumar
* Kannur: C Raghunath
* Thrissur: Suresh Gopi
* Alappuzha: Sobha Surendran
* Pathanamthitta: Anil Antony
* Vadakara: Praful Krishnan
* Attingal: V Muraleedharan
* Thiruvananthapuram: Rajeev Chandrasekhar
The BJP came out with its first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections during a press conference held in the national capital on March 2. Among the prominent figures featured in the first list of 195 candidates are Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will be contesting from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, slated to run from Gandhinagar in Gujarat.
Presenting the list were BJP National Vice President Jay Panda and BJP National General Secretary, Vinod Tawde. Notably, the lineup includes 34 Union Ministers and Ministers of State, reflecting the party's strategic selection process.
The release of the candidate list precedes the official announcement of the Lok Sabha poll dates by the Election Commission of India (ECI), anticipated to be held in April-May. The BJP has set ambitious targets, aiming for over 370 seats for the party itself and over 400 for the broader National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
This announcement follows a familiar pattern, reminiscent of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when the BJP disclosed the names of 184 candidates on March 21, weeks ahead of the polling schedule.
The anticipation surrounding the candidate list intensified following an extensive meeting of the BJP's Central Election Committee (CEC) convened on February 29. Notably, two sitting MPs, Gautam Gambhir from East Delhi and Jayant Sinha from Hazaribagh, had earlier opted out of the Lok Sabha polls.
The meeting witnessed the presence of key party figures, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP's national President JP Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and Organisation General Secretary BL Santosh. Additionally, Chief Ministers from various states such as Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Assam, Uttarakhand, and Goa were also in attendance, underscoring the significance of the event in shaping the party's electoral strategy.
