Kottayam: Former Member of Parliament and Kerala Congress Deputy Chairman Francis George will contest as UDF candidate from Kottayam in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Kerala Congress chairman P J Joseph announced the candidate's name here on Saturday.

Joseph said that his party unanimously elected Francis George as its candidate for the polls. 

Francis George is the son of Kerala Congress founder chairman and former minister K M George.

At the same time, LDF will field Kerala Congress(M) leader and sitting MP Thomas Chazhikadan from Kottayam seat. In the 2019 general election, Chazhikadan contested as a UDF candidate from Kottayam and won the polls with a majority of over one lakh votes after defeating CPM's V N Vasavan. It is examined that Kottayam will be in the spotlight as Chazhikadan and George who represented the same party once will compete with each other.

The general elections are expected to be held in April-May this year. In 2019, the polls were held in Kerala on April 23.