CPI announces candidates for 4 Kerala LS seats
THE Communist Party of India revealed its candidates for four key Lok Sabha seats in Kerala. Annie Raja will contest from Wayanad, Pannian Raveendran from Thiruvananthapuram, Arun Kumar from Mavelikkara and VS Sunil Kumar from Thrissur.
The announcement was made through a post on the social media platform X.
Notably, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi represents Wayanad in Lok Sabha while the party's Shashi Tharoor has been the parliamentarian from Thiruvananthapuram.
Even though the dates for the Lok Sabha polls haven't been declared yet, the Kerala unit of CPI-M on February 21 effectively finalised its candidates for the 15 seats it will contest, news agency IANS reported earlier.
As per IANS, the list includes prominent state leaders and sitting legislators. K. Radhakarishnan, a state minister, will stand from the reserved Alathur constituency in Palakkad, while V. Joy, K.K. Shailaja, and actor-turned-politician Mukesh will vie for seats in Attingal, Vadakara and Kollam respectively.
The party's selections also feature former state ministers and veteran political figures, including Thomas Isaac, C. Ravindranath and A. Vijayaraghavan, among others, it stated.
Notable inclusions are A. Vijayaraghavan, a veteran former Lok Sabha member, contesting from Palakkad, and V. Vasif, the state President of the CPI-M youth wing, who will stand from Malappurram.
Surprise names like K.S. Hamsa and K.J. Shine also feature in the roster, indicating strategic moves by the party to diversify its candidate pool, IANS' report stated.
Political analyst K.C. Umesh Babu anticipates rigorous scrutiny of the CPI-M candidates during the elections, particularly regarding the performance of the Vijayan government.
"The elections will see a lot of questions being asked to all these bigwigs on the Vijayan government's functioning," Babu remarked, emphasising that names alone won't sway voter sentiment, as quoted by the report.
With the CPI-M finalising its candidates, attention now turns to other political players in Kerala as the Congress and BJP are yet to announce their lists.
