Thiruvananthapuram: The CPM in Kerala officially declared its candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections Saturday. Four sitting MLAs and six sitting MPs will contest in the LS polls, CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said on Saturday.
While the CPM - the largest partner in the Left Democratic Front (LDF) - will field 16 candidates, the CPI, the second major ally, will contest four seats and two will be sitting MLAs.
The CPM candidates are: K P Satheesh Chandran (Kasaragod), P K Sreemathy (Kannur), P Jayarajan (Vadakara), A Pradeep Kumar (Kozhikode), V P Sanu (Malappuram), P V Anwar (Ponnani), M B Rajesh (Palakkad), P K Biju (Alathur), Innocent (Chalakudy), P Rajeev (Ernakulam), A M Arif (Alappuzha), V N Vasavan (Kottayam), Joyce George (Idukki), K N Balagopal (Kollam), Veena George (Pathanamthitta) and A Sampath (Attingal).
Kodiyeri said the coming Lok Sabha polls were crucial and inevitable to enhance the strength of the Left front in Parliament.
The sitting MLAs were chosen considering the winnability, he told reporters at the party headquarters, AKG Centre here.
"It is not for the first time that sitting MLAs are contesting. In 2009, four MLAs of the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) had contested. It had happened on several other occasions also," he said.
The six sitting MPs of CPM who will contest in the Lok Sabha polls are Innocent, Joyce George, M B Rajesh, P K Biju, A Sampath and P K Sreemathy. A M Arif , Veena George, A Pradeep Kumar and P V Anwar are the sitting MLAs who figure in the list. Of these, George and Anwar are CPM-backed independents.
The CPI, which had already announced the candidates, plans to field sitting MLAs C Divakaran and Chittayam Gopakumar in Thiruvananthapuram and Mavelikkara constituencies, respectively. The CPI would field P P Suneer at Wayanad and Rajaji Mathew Thomas in the Thrissur constituency.
During the 2014 Lok Sabaha polls, the Congress-led UDF had won 12 seats and CPM-led LDF eight, while the BJP had failed to open its account in the state dominated by the bipolar polity.
LDF’s constituency conventions will be held from March 10 to 20.
The Congress and BJP are yet to officially announce their candidate list.
The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the second biggest ally of the Congress-led United Democratic Front government, announced that P K Kunhalikutty will contest from the Malappuram seat and ET Mohammed Basheer from the Ponnani seat.