Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State vice-president M.T. Ramesh will contest from the Pathanamthitta constituency in the Lok Sabha election. This was announced by the central election committee of the BJP in New Delhi on Thursday.
The State election committee of the party had entrusted the choice of the candidate for Pathanamthitta to the State president as a proposal to field former IAS officer Alphons Kannamthanam or former BJP State president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai from the constituency met with difficulties.
Aikya Vedi supportMr. Ramesh was chosen as he was acceptable to the Hindu Aikya Vedi, who led the campaign against the Aranmula airport in the constituency.
The party was considering Independents or others willing to associate with the party from the Alappuzha, Mavelikara and Kottayam constituencies.
The central election committee approved the 13 other candidates recommended by the State election committee of the party on Tuesday.
ConstituenciesThe constituencies and names of the contestants are the following: Kannur, P.C. Mohanan; Vadakara, V.K. Sajeevan; Wayanad, P.R. Rasmilnath; Kozhikode, C.K. Padmanabhan; Malappuram, Sreeprakash; Ponnani, K. Narayanan; Palakkad, Shobha Surendran; Alathur (SC), Shajumon Vattekad; Thrissur, K.P. Sreesan; Chalakudy, B. Gopalakrishnan; Idukki, Sabu Varghese; Kollam, P.M. Velayudhan; Attingal, Girijakumari.
Earlier, the committee had announced O. Rajagopal, A.N. Radhakrishnan, and K. Surendran as candidates from Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kasaragod.