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).
