Kerala Congress Releases List of Probable Candidates, Includes Names of Four Sitting MLAs

Thiruvananthapuram: Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress has taken a leaf out of the CPI(M)’s book and included the names of five sitting MLAs in its list of probable candidates. In the list presented before the AICC screening committee, the party fielded the names of former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Vandoor MLA AP Anil Kumar, Shafi Parambil of Palakkad, Adoor Prakash of Konni and K Muraleedharan from Vattiyoorkkav as probable candidates to the state leadership.

The names of candidates were finalised after a meeting attended by Chandy, Ramesh Chennithala and Mullappalli Ramachandran.

Despite being unhappy about his candidature, Chandy, a probable for the Idukki constituency, was reportedly pressured by the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) leadership to be in the fray. However, if he refuses to budge, Pathanamthitta MP Anto Antony, Youth Congress leader Dean Kuriakose or KPCC spokesperson Joseph Vazhackan are likely to contest. Besides these, AP Anil Kumar is being considered from Alathur, Shafi Parambil from Palakkad, Adoor Prakash from Attingal and K Muraleedharan for Wayanad.

CPI (M) sitting MLAs listed for the elections include Aroor MLA A.M. Arif, A. Sampath of Attingal, Joice George of Idukki, P.K. Biju of Alathur, M.B. Rajesh of Palakkad and P.K. Srimathy of Kannur.

The complete list of Congress probable candidates is as follows.

Thiruvananthapuram : Shashi Tharoor

Attingal: Adoor Prakash

Mavelikkara: Kodikunnil Suresh

Pathanamthitta: Anto Antony, P.J. Kurien

Alappuzha: K.C. Venugopal, Shanimol Usman

Idukki: Oommen Chandy, Anto Antony, Joseph Vazhackan, Dean Kuriakose

Ernakulam: K.V. Thomas

Thrissur: V.M. Sudheeran, T.N. Prathapan, K.P. Dhanapalan

Chalakkudy: Benny Behanan, V.J. Paulose, Mathew Kuzhalnadan

Alathur: A.P. Anil Kumar, Remya Haridas, A. Sreelal

Palakkad: V.K. Sreekandan, Shafi Parambil, Lathika Subhash

Vadakara: Mullappally Ramachandran, T. Siddique

Kozhikode: M.K. Raghavan

Kannur: K. Sudhakaran

Wayanad: T. Siddique, Shanimol Usman, K. Muraleedharan, M.M. Hassan, T. Asifali

Kasargod: B. Subbayya Rai​