Battlelines clear in Kerala as Cong, CPI(M) finalise list

Battlelines in Kerala has became clear with the UDF and LDF declaring their candidates for the April 10 Lok Sabha polls.
Congress-led ruling UDF, which is contesting on 15 seats, has retained 11 of its 13 sitting MPs including Union Ministers Shashi Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram and K V Thomas in Ernakulam.
Other union ministers from the state -- Mullapally Ramachandran (Vatakara), K C Venugopal (Alappuzha) and Kodikunnil Suresh (Maveliikkara) -- were also back in the fray as Congress list drew up by the state unit had been endorsed by the AICC.
Senior leader P C Chacko has been shifted from Thrissur to nearby Chalakkudi, swaping places with the sitting MP.

While P T Thomas, who has been at loggerheads with the catholic church in Christian-dominated Idukki, was dropped, N Peethambara Kurup failed to get renomination as the Kollam seat won by him had been allocated to the RSP.
Other sitting members in the Congress list are K Sudhakaran (Kannur), M K Raghavan (Kozhikode) and Anto Antony (Pathanamthitta).

The new faces to be put up by Congress include the lone woman candidate Bindu Krishna (Attingal) and T Siddique (Kasargode) and Youth Congress state President (Idukki).
Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the second largest partner of the UDF, has renominated Union Minister E Ahamed (Malappuram) and E T Muhammad Basheer (Ponnai). The Kerala Congress (M) will be renominating Jose K Mani in Kottayam.

Former union minister M P Veerendrakumar of the SJD will be the UDF contestant in Pakakkad.
Prominent CPI(M) contestants are politbureau member M A Baby (Kollam) and P K Sreemathy (Kannur). The party also retained four of its sitting MPs - P Karunakaran (Kasargode), M B Rajesh (Palakkad), P K Biju (Alathur) and A Sampath (Attingal).