Malappuram: The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) announced its candidates for the Lok Sabha elections on Wednesday.
While there was hardly any surprise on the candidature, the party switched the constituencies of the sitting MPs of Ponnani and Malappuram.

While ET Mohammed Basheer, the current Ponnani MP, will contest from Malappuram, Abdussamad Samadani will contest from Ponnani. The announcement has officially ended the chances of the party claiming a third seat in Kerala. 

Meanwhile, K Navas Kani, MP from Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu, will contest from the same constituency as a DMK ally.

In the 2019 election, ET retained the Ponnani seat by defeating LDF-supported independent candidate P V Anvar with a margin of 1,93,273 votes. Samadhani, on th other hand, won the Malappuram seat by defeating SFI national president V P Sanu with a margin of 1,14,692 votes.  

League leaders expressed optimism about a grand victory from both seats and said UDF would emerge victorious in the state.

The IUML announcement came after UDF finalised the seat-sharing plan for the Lok Sabha elections on Wednesday. While Congress will contest in 16 seats, the League will contest in two seats. Kerala Congress and RSP (B) will contest in one seat each.

The Congress has decided to offer a Rajya Seat to the IUML instead of a third seat in the Lok Sabha Elections. The candidate for the Rajya Sabha seat will be declared later.