THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: BJP on Monday announced its first list of 47 candidates for the Kerala assembly election, with Union minister George Kurian to fight from Kanjirappally, while the party’s state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar will contest from Nemom seat and former Union minister V Muraleedharan will once again seek mandate from Kazhakkoottam. K Surendran, former state president of the party, will contest from Manjeswar, a seat he lost by a whisker in 2021. Former DGP and Sasthamangalam corporation ward councillor R Sreelekha has been fielded from Vattiyoorkavu, while BJP state vice-president C Krishnakumar will contest from Malampuzha. Sobha Surendran has been given the Palakkad seat while R Reshmi, former state general secretary of Mahila Congress who switched to BJP last month, will contest from Kottarakkara. The BJP central election committee, chaired by party president Nitin Nabin, finalised the candidates for the 47 seats at a meeting that was also attended by PM Modi and Union minister Amit Shah. Other candidates named in the first list include A P Gangadharan (Payyannur), C Raghunath (Kannur), Kavitha A S (Sultan Bathery – ST), Navya Haridas (Kozhikode North), T Raneesh (Kozhikode South), Padmaja Venugopal (Thrissur), A Ajith (Vaikom – SC), B B Gopakumar (Chathannur), P Sudheer (Attingal), Yuvaraj Gokul (Nedumangad).
