BJP announces candidates, Navya lined up against Priyanka in Wayanad

The candidacy of major political parties in Kerala for the upcoming elections concluded on Saturday when the BJP announced its three choices.

C Krishnakumar, former state general secretary of the BJP, will contest the Assembly bypoll from Palakkad. In the other vacant Assembly seat in Chelakkara, the BJP nominated a lesser-known candidate in K Balakrishnan, who was the former president of the Thiruvilvamala grass panchayat.

For voting for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, the BJP has fielded its Mahila Morcha leader Navya Haridas. The former Kozhikode Corporation councilor will face Congress ace Priyanka Gandhi and CPM’s Sathyan Mokeri.

Krishnakumar, the oldest of the three BJP candidates, will face a tough contest from young Congress leader Rahul Mamkoottathil and rebel P Sarin, who has been nominated as the LDF candidate.

The BJP hopes to cash in on K Balakrishnan’s local support in Chelakkara, where the Congress has fielded former MP Ramya Haridas and the CPM has fielded UR Pradeep. Balakrishnan is now the vice-president of the Thiruvilvamala panchayat.

The supplementary elections will take place on November 13th and the vote count is scheduled for November 23rd.