Rahul Gandhi From Wayanad Again, Congress Announces Kerala List

Congress today announced the first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The list features Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal and Shashi Tharoor.

The All India Congress Committee announced the candidates for 36 constituencies in the states of Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Sikkim. Out of 36 candidates, 15 are from Kerala.

Sitting MP Shashi Tharoor will contest the election from Thiruvananthapuram constituency. This is the fourth time he will be contesting the election from the same seat. He has won the seat since 2009.

In an unexpected turn of events, the party has fielded K Muraleedharan in the Thrissur constituency. K Muraleedharan is the brother of Padmaja Venugopal, who has recently joined the saffron party. Muraleedharan will face BJP’s celebrity candidate Suresh Gopi in Thrissur. He was initially slated to be fielded in Vadakara but has now been replaced by Shafi Parambil. K Sudhakaran is fielded in the Kannur constituency.

The 15 candidates from the first list are from general category and 24 are Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and OBC candidates.

Other sitting MPs of the party are expected to maintain their existing constituencies.

In the election committee meeting held on Thursday, veteran leaders including Sonia Gandhi, KC Venugopal, K Sudhakaran, VD Satheeshan, Shashi Tharoor, and Ramesh Chennithala took part. Rahul Gandhi joined the meeting through video conference.

Congress’ Kerala Candidates:

Kasargod – Rajmohan Unnithan
Kannur – K Sudhakaran
Vadakara – Shafi Parambil
Wayanad – Rahul Gandhi
Kozhikode – MK Raghavan
Palakkad – VK Srikantan
Alathur – Remya Haridas
Thrissur – K Muraleedhadan
Chalammudi – Benny Behanan
Ernakulam – Hiby Eden
Idukki – Dean Kuriakose
Alapluzha – KC Venugopal
Mavelikkara – Kodikkunnil Suresh
Pathanamthitta – Anto Antony
Attingal – Adoor Prakash
Thiruvananthapuram- Shashi Tharoor