Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], March 22 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its NDA partners have completed their candidate selection for the upcoming Kerala Assembly elections, with state president Rajeev Chandrashekhar asserting that the process reflects transparency and clarity in contrast to rival parties.
Speaking to ANI here on Sunday, Chandrashekhar said, "You can see the very, very sharp contrast between how our seat allocation has happened and how everything has been done so openly and transparently, both within the party and with the NDA partners, versus the confusion and chaos that we are seeing in the Congress and the CPM."
He added that the approach reflects the alliance's intent for governance in the state. "This should tell the people of Kerala about what our intentions are, how together we are going to bring change in our state, and that is the intention, the desire, and the goal of every Karyakarta of the NDA," he said.
This comes after the BJP on Saturday released a list of 11 additional candidates, taking forward its preparations for the 140-member Assembly polls. The newly announced candidates include V Ratheesh (Peerumade), Raveendranath Bakathanam (Puthuppally), Ajimon (Mavelikkara), Pandalam Prathapan (Adoor), KR Rajesh (Chavara), RS Arjun Raj (Chadayamangalam), BS Anoop (Chirayinkeezhu), Karamana Jayan (Thiruvananthapuram), Vivek Gopan (Aruvikkara), TN Suresh (Kovalam) and S Rajasekharan Nair (Neyyattinkara).
With this, the party has named candidates across multiple constituencies, having earlier released two lists covering 86 constituencies. Senior leaders, including Union Minister George Kurian, V Muraleedharan, K Surendran and Navya Haridas, are among key contenders. Muraleedharan has filed his nomination from Kazhakoottam, while Chandrasekhar is contesting from Nemom.
Polling for the Kerala Assembly elections will be held in a single phase on April 9, with counting scheduled for May 4. The tenure of the current assembly is scheduled to end on May 23.