Thiruvananthapuram: Metroman E Sreedharan was on Wednesday named as a 'special invitee' to the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) national executive.
Former state president of BJP, PK Krishnadas is a second invitee from Kerala.
Sreedharan, who contested as a BJP candidate from the Palakkad constituency had been touted as the party's chief ministerial candidate during the Assembly polls, in which the BJP failed to win a seat.
There are nine from Kerala that feature in a list released by national president JP Nadda. Incidentally, the party's state vice-president, Sobha Surendran, has been overlooked.
Alphons Kannanthanam and O Rajagopal are the other prominent names not part of the list.
V Muraleedharan, Union Minister of State for External Affairs, and Kummanam Rajasekharan, former Governor of Mizoram, are Kerala's nominees to the national executive that comprises 80 members, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The others from Kerala who feature in the list released by the BJP are:
K Surendran (state president)
CP Radhakrishnan (state Prabhari)
M Ganesan and Subhash (state general secretaries)
Tom Vadakkan (national spokesperson)
Abdulla Kutty (vice-president)