Lok Sabha Elections 2024: BJP’s Special Focus on Kerala, Fields Lone Muslim Candidate

The party has fielded many high-profile candidates from Kerala in its first list, including two Union ministers.

There are a total of 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala.

BJP candidate list: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday announced the names of candidates for 195 seats for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2024. This includes seats from Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. Candidates for Kerala have also been announced in the first list of BJP.

The BJP currently does not have a single MP in Kerala. The party has fielded many high-profile candidates from Kerala in its first list, including two Union ministers – Rajeev Chandrashekhar and V Muraleedharan. Both are currently Rajya Sabha MPs of the party.

External Affairs Minister Rajiv Chandrashekhar has been appointed from Thiruvananthapuram. Congress leader Shashi Tharoor is the current MP from this seat. Besides, key actor Suresh Gopi has been appointed from Thrissur seat, while Anil Antony, son of former Defense Minister AK Antony, has been appointed from Pathanamthitta. MT Ramesh is the BJP candidate from Kozhikode.

There are a total of 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala. Of these, BJP has announced the names of twelve candidates. In the first list, BJP has fielded C Krishnakumar from Pakkkad, Suresh Gopi from Thrissur, Shobha Surendran from Alappuzha, Anil Antony from Pathanamthitta, Rajeev Chandrasekhar from Thiruvananthapuram, MT Ramesh from Kozhikode.

In addition, cards were given to Dr. Abdul Salam from Malappuram, Nivedita from Ponnani, V Muraleedharan from Attingal, Prafulla Krishna from Vadakara, ML Ashwini from Kasaragod and C Raghunath from Kannur.

In the last two Lok Sabha elections of 2014 and 2019, the BJP has performed brilliantly in most of the northern states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

In such a situation, it is difficult to increase the number of seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from these states, due to which the BJP is now eyeing the southern states.

The BJP is often accused of not fielding Muslim candidates in elections. However, this time the BJP has given a ticket to a Muslim candidate, Dr. Abdul Salam from Malappuram seat. Salam joined the BJP in 2019 and contested the elections from Momon two years later.

BJP currently does not have a single MP in Kerala. In the last Lok Sabha elections of 2019, Congress had got the maximum number of 15 seats from Kerala. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi himself is also an MP from Wayanad seat in Kerala.