Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has been announced as the BJP candidate from the Thiruvananthapuram constituency for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Chandrasekhar, who is the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, will be up against Congress' sitting MP Shashi Tharoor.

The BJP announced its candidates to 12 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala at the party headquarters in New Delhi on Saturday.

Anil Antony, son of veteran Congress leader A K Antony, will contest from Pathanamthitta while Union Minister of State for External Affairs, V Muraleedharan has been given the Attingal constituency.

BJP's candidate in Kannur is another defector, who joined the saffron party last December, ending a five-decade association with the Congress. Raghunath was a former general secretary of the Kannur DCC. He famously contested against Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan from Dharmadom in the last Assembly elections.

As projected, actor Suresh Gopi will contest from Thrissur while Sobha Surendran has been given the Alappuzha constituency.

Gopi, a former Rajya Sabha MP, had contested the previous General Elections from Thrissur. He finished third.

BJP's Malappuram candidate Abdul Salam served as the Vice Chancellor of the Calicut University between 2011 and 2015. He joined the BJP in 2019 and contested as an NDA candidate from Tirur in the last assembly elections. He is the national vice president of the minority morcha of the BJP.

The BJP candidate in Ponnani, Nivedida Subramanian contested the 2016 aseembly polls from Guruvayoor. Her candidature was rejected in 2021 from the same constituency.

First list of BJP candidates in Kerala and their constituencies
Thiruvananthapuram: Rajeev Chandrasekhar
Attingal: V Muraleedharan
Pathanamthitta: Anil Antony
Alappuzha: Sobha Surendran
Thrissur: Suresh Gopi
Palakkad: C Krishnakumar
Ponnani: Nivedida Subramanian
Malappuram: Dr Abdul Salam
Kozhikode: M T Ramesh
Vadakara: Praful Krishnan
Kannur: C Raghunath
Kasaragod: M L Ashwini