BJP to contest 14 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday finalised seat-sharing among National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners for the national elections from Kerala.

The BJP which leads the NDA will field candidates in 14 of the 20 constituencies in the southern state, leaving five to the Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) and one to the Kerala Congress (Thomas).

KC (T) leader PC Thomas, a former minister, and six-time lawmaker, will take on Thomas Chazhikadan of the Congress ally Kerala Congress (M) and VN Vasavan of the state’s ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM. BJP and BDJS are yet to finalise their candidates, while the Cpm-led Let Democratic Front (LDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) led by the Congress are far ahead in their campaigning.

In 2014, the NDA garnered 10.72 per cent popular votes but drew a blank, though its vote share almost doubled from the 2009 figure of 6.31 per cent.

In the 2016 assembly elections, it improved the vote share further to 15.1 per cent and won a seat for the first time in Kerala’s electoral history, including its previous avatar as Jan Sangh.

All pre-poll surveys conducted by national agencies predict a sweep by the UDF and a spurt in NDA’S vote share, which could also be translated into a seat, opening its electoral account in parliament from Kerala.

In the latest survey conducted by the Voters Mood Research (VMR) for Times Now television last week found a huge swing of votes away from the LDF for its tough stand on liting the age bar for women at the Hindu hill shrine of Sabarimala.

The UDF is likely to win 45 per cent of the popular votes and 16 seats, leaving 29.2 per cent votes and three seats to the LDF, and one with 21.7 per cent votes to the NDA, in its best performance. Last time, BJP’S O Rajagopal came a close second when Congress leader Dr Shashi Tharoor scraped through in the constituency of the state capital here by a margin of 15,400 votes, a far cry from his 2009 record of 98,998 votes, pushing the LDF to a distant third.

The UDF had then won 12 seats and the LDF eight.

Kerala will vote on April 23 in the staggered national elections spread over two months to elect 543 members to the Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of parliament.