(MENAFN- AsiaNet News) Thiruvananthapuram: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its first list of 195 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday (Mar 02). In Kerala, the party announced candidates for 12 out of the 20 Lok Sabha seats. The most notable candidates are Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar from Thiruvananthapuram, Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan from Attingal and Suresh Gopi from Thrissur.
Minister of State for Information technology and Skill Development Rajeev Chandrasekhar who will make his debut in the Lok Sabha election will likely go up against senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who has held the seat for three straight terms.
After the announcement of the first list, the Minister took to X and said that this is yet another responsibility that I feel proud of.
He wrote, "I am deeply humbled and honoured that PM @narendramodi ji, @BJP4India President @JPNaddaji and HM @AmitShah ji have entrusted this responsibility to me of representing
#Thiruvananthapuram, capital of my state Kerala , in Parliament and in Govt. As a malayalee and son of an Air Warrior, I value each and every opportunity to serve people, state and country. This is yet another responsibility that I feel proud of. From here on, lets discuss development. Let every step be for the development of Kerala and #Thiruvananthapuram. I seek all your blessings for the same."
The 12 BJP candidates from Kerala in the first list include:
* Kasaragod: M L Aswini
* Kozhikode: MT Ramesh
* Malappuram: Dr Abdul Salam
* Ponnani: Niveditha Subramanyam
* Palakkad: Krishna Kumar
* Kannur: C Raghunath
* Thrissur: Suresh Gopi
* Alappuzha: Sobha Surendran
* Pathanamthitta: Anil Antony
* Vadakara: Praful Krishnan
* Attingal: V Muraleedharan
* Thiruvananthapuram: Rajeev Chandrasekhar
The BJP came out with its first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections during a press conference held in the national capital on March 2. Among the prominent figures featured in the first list of 195 candidates are Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will be contesting from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, slated to run from Gandhinagar in Gujarat.
Presenting the list were BJP National Vice President Jay Panda and BJP National General Secretary, Vinod Tawde. Notably, the lineup includes 34 Union Ministers and Ministers of State, reflecting the party's strategic selection process.
The release of the candidate list precedes the official announcement of the Lok Sabha poll dates by the Election Commission of India (ECI), anticipated to be held in April-May. The BJP has set ambitious targets, aiming for over 370 seats for the party itself and over 400 for the broader National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
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