The Congress retained all three of its sitting MLAs in the district, while bringing in quite a few fresh faces on its list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections.
Putting rest to days of speculation regarding the candidate for the Nemom seat, the party announced the name of K. Muraleedharan, MP. Kerala Pradesh Congress (KPCC) president Mullappally Ramachandran, who announced the list here on Sunday afternoon, said that the candidate for the Vattiyurkavu constituency, which had witnessed a revolt from the local leadership of the Congress, would be announced later.
Mr. Muraleedharan, the MP representing Vadakara, returns to Thiruvananthapuram district after a gap of two years, following his resignation as MLA from the Vattiyurkavu constituency, where he had won twice. With his return, the Congress is taking back the Nemom constituency that it had given to its ally Janata Dal (United) in the previous two elections, signalling its intent to take on the BJP in its only seat in the State.
Among the new faces on the list is B.R.M. Shafeer, who will be contesting from Varkala. The 40-year-old is currently serving as a KPCC secretary. He came into politics through the Kerala Students Union (KSU) and had later served as a district leader of the Youth Congress. S.S. Lal, who will be contesting from Kazhakuttam, is a public health expert who has worked with the World Health Organisation. A student leader of the KSU and office-bearer of Medicos’ Associations, he came back into active politics last year through the All India Professionals’ Congress.
P.S. Prasanth, who will be contesting from Nedumangad, had served as the vice chairperson of the Youth Welfare Board during the previous UDF government’s tenure. He had also held the position of the district president of both the KSU and the Youth Congress, and has been an office-bearer of the District Congress Committee (DCC) and the KPCC.
Ansajitha Russal, the only woman on the Congress list in the district, has been a district panchayat member since 1995 and will contest in Parassala. In 2013, she became the president of the Thiruvananthapuram district panchayat. She is currently representing the Vellarada division in the district panchayat.
35-year-old B.S. Anoop, who will be contesting from the Chirayinkeezhu constituency, is currently the Youth Congress State general secretary and is a member of the Kadakkavoor grama panchayat. Malayinkeezh Venugopal, the Congress candidate from Kattakada, had earlier won seats for the party in the district panchayat as well as the Nemom block panchayat. He has also been a member of the District Planning Committee and the District Tourism Promotion Council. Anad Jayan, Congress candidate in Vamanapuram, is currently a member of the district panchayat.
MLAs
V.S. Sivakumar will contest in the Thiruvananthapuram Assembly constituency, which he has been holding since 2011. M. Vincent, who won from the Kovalam constituency in 2016, will be contesting from there for a second time. K.S. Sabarinadhan will contest in the Aruvikkara constituency for a third time.
R. Selvaraj, who had kicked up a storm after resigning as a CPI(M) MLA and joining the Congress in 2012, will contest in Neyyattinkara.
