Kerala Polls: BJP’s Sreelekha in Vattiyoorkavu and Sobha in Palakkad; Shweta Menon among probables
Thiruvananthapuram: Former DGP R Sreelekha will be the BJP candidate from Vattiyoorkavu. She is the BJP state vice-president and a councillor from Sasthamangalam. She is expected to begin her campaign on Saturday by writing on the wall near Narmada Complex, marking the start of election activities.
Vattiyoorkavu is a constituency where the BJP emerged ahead in the previous Lok Sabha and local body elections.
However, the official announcement of candidates in Kerala is not expected immediately. Since the party had earlier permitted campaign activities to begin in potential constituencies, several prominent leaders have already entered the fray.
Only the first round of discussions has been held with NDA allies such as Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) and Twenty20 Party. The BJP is likely to allocate around 30 seats to BDJS and 10–12 seats to Twenty20. The BJP is also keen that Tushar Vellappally of BDJS and Sabu Jacob of Twenty20 contest the elections. The party’s position is that Tushar should contest from Kuttanad and Sabu Jacob from Tripunithura.
The BJP had earlier tried to field Padmaja Venugopal against her brother K Muraleedharan in Vattiyoorkavu. However, Padmaja is now being considered for Thrissur. If she does not contest from Thrissur, the party may field a candidate from the Christian community.
Sobha Surendran, who had been considered for the Kayamkulam and Aroor constituencies, will not contest from either seat, as both are likely to go to BDJS. She is expected to contest from Palakkad.
Actor Shweta Menon is also among those being considered for the Tripunithura constituency, while Yuvraj Gokul is in the consideration list for Nedumangad.
A list covering 52 constituencies has been submitted to the party’s central leadership.
Among those included are
- Rajeev Chandrasekhar for Nemom
- V Muraleedharan for Kazhakkoottam
- P K Krishnadas for Kattakkada
- G S Asha Nath for Attingal
- Karamana Jayan/ G Krishnakumar/ Rajasekharan Nair for Thiruvananthapuram
- Prashanth for Kollam
- B B Gopakumar for Chathannoor
- Jithin Dev for Karunagappally
- R Rashmi for Kottarakkara
- Akhil Marar for Pathanapuram
- Anoop Antony for Thiruvalla
- Kummanam Rajasekharan/M T Ramesh for Aranmula
- Sandeep Vachaspathi/ M V Gopakumar for Chengannur
- K Surendran for Manjeshwaram
- Navya Haridas for Kozhikode North
- Shanku T Das for Shornur
- C Krishnakumar for Malampuzha
- Shone George for Pala
- George Kurian for Kanjirappally
- B Gopalakrishnan for Kodungallur
- O Nidheesh (Youth Morcha in-charge) for Thalassery.