Sreesanth joins BJP, to fight Kerala elections

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday fielded former India pacer S Sreesanth from the Thiruvananthapuram seat even as it declared 50 other candidates for the coming Assembly polls in Kerala.

After a nearly four-hour-long meeting, the Central Election Committee (CEC) of BJP announced that Sreesanth has formally joined the party and would contest from Thiruvananthapuram.

Talking to reporters at a media briefing, Sreesanth said his name had been cleared by the court in a match-fixing case and he was, therefore, not worried about any Opposition attack on him regarding the controversy.

Though a trial court in Delhi had dropped charges against him last year, he still faces a ban on playing any form of cricket by the BCCI.

BJP has already announced 22 candidates from Kerala in its first list.

BJP also announced the first list of 54 candidates for the Tamil Nadu polls and said a second list would be issued after talks with IJK and NJP fructify in the coming days.

Asked whether BJP is still hopeful of an alliance with AIADMK, BJP CEC Secretary JP Nadda said talks are on with these parties only.

He said though candidates for Puducherry were discussed but no decision was taken today.

The CEC is chaired by party President Amit Shah and was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several other leaders.

BJP has fielded several lawyers, a filmmaker, engineers and trade union activists from Kerala and Tamil Nadu.