BJP Pits Former Mizoram Governor Rajasekharan Against Shashi Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram

New Delhi: The ruling BJP on Thursday released its list of candidates for Kerala, fielding former Mizoram Governor Kummanam Rajasekharan against senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram.

Rajasekharan had, in a surprise move, resigned from the post of Governor early this month, leading to speculation that the former Kerala BJP chief would be the saffron party’s candidate against Tharoor. His tenure as Mizoram Governor lasted less than 10 months and the appointment came as a shock to many as it was just a couple of days before the crucial by-election in Chengannur.

Tharoor, who was previously the minister of state for External Affairs and Human Resource Development, won the 2009 elections with a handsome margin of about one lakh votes and the 2014 elections with roughly 16,000 votes.

With Rajasekharan contesting from the prestigious Thiruvananthapuram constituency, there will now be a three-way fight between Tharoor, Rajasekharan and former minister C Divakaran of the CPI.

The BJP is set to contest from 13 seats in Kerala – Kasargode, Kannur, Vadakara, Kochikode, Malappuram, Ponnani, Palakkad, Chalakudy, Ernakulam, Alapuzzha, Kollam, Attingal and Thiruvananthapuram. It is yet to announce the candidate for Pathanamthitta, the constituency housing the Sabarimala temple.

The seat-sharing was announced on Monday by BJP general secretary Muralidhar Rao. Ernakulam will see a tough fight between union minister Alphons Kannanthanam, Congress’s Hibi Eden -- former president of the National Student’s Union (NSU) and one of the youngest leaders in the party, and P Rajeev from CPI-M.

KS Radhakrishnan, who joined the BJP on Sunday, will contest from Alappuzha while Sobha Surendran, who secured 1.2 lakh votes in 2014, will contest from Attingal. Other candidates include AN Radhakrishnan from Chalakudy, CK Padmanabhan from Kannur, Raveesh Thantri Kuntar from Kasargode, VK Sajeevan from Vadakara, KP Prakash Babu from Kozhikode, Unnikrishnan Master from Malappuram, VT Rema from Ponnani, C Krishnakumar from Palakkad and KV Sabu from Kollam