Metroman Sreedharan, K Surendran, Suresh Gopi in BJP Kerala list

'Metroman' E Sreedharan in Palakkad, BJP state president K Surendran in Manjeshwar and Konni, actor and Rajya Sabha MP Suresh Gopi in Thrissur - these are the highlights of the BJP's list of candidates for Kerala released on Sunday.

Apart from them, former party state chief Kummanam Rajasekharan will contest from Nemom - the only seat ever won by the BJP in Kerala - where he will be up against Congress stalwart K Muraleedharan and CPI(M)'s V Sivankutty in an exciting triangular fight.

Former Union minister K J Alphons will contest from Kanjirapally and former DGP Jacob Thomas from Irinjalakuda, while former party state chief CK Padmanabhan will take on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at Dharmadam.


The BJP, which is contesting in 115 of the 140 constituencies, kept for later release its names for three seats - including Kazhakoottam, where the buzz is that union minister V Muraleedharan would be drafted in.

Surendran is trying his luck from Konni, where he led the Sabarimala agitation in 2018 against the entry of women at the hill shrine, and in Manjeshwar, where he had come very close to winning in 2016.

Veteran technocrat Sreedharan, who joined the BJP recently, was given a constituency close to his hometown where he will face Shafi Parambil of the Congress and CP Pramod of the Left.

Suresh Gopi had performed creditably from the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat in 2019, and hence this is another constituency the BJP would be watching seriously.

A notable omission was senior leader Shobha Surendran who apparently had been given the impression that she would be asked to contest this time.

Academician and retired Calicut University Vice Chancellor Dr Abdul Salam has been fielded from Tirur and Manikuttan, the first tribal engineer, will be in the fray from Mananthavady (reserved) seat.

Twenty five seats have been given to BJP's four allies--BDJS (Bharath Dharma Jana Sena), AIADMK,Janadhipathya Rashtriya Sabha (JRS) and Kamaraj Congress.