Ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Kerala from March 30 to April 2. Today, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb will reach Kerala to mark the beginning of Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) election campaigns along with other ministers and leaders.
The BJP CM will launch constituency conventions at Kattakada, Vattiyoorkavu and Thiruvananthapuram. Also, he will inaugurate Mandal committee offices at Aruvikkara and Kovalam. As part of the campaign, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani, BJP national president J.P. Nadda, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, star campaigners Kushboo and Vijayashanti will visit Kerala.
Meanwhile, C Manikandan alias Manikuttan, BJP's candidate from Mananthavady Assembly constituency has turned down the candidature. Hours after the candidature announcement by the party, Manikandan, who belongs to the Paniya community, reportedly through a social media message conveyed that he is not interested in contesting the upcoming elections as it was tough for him to enter the party politics.
On Sunday, BJP had released the list of 112 candidates who will be on the fray for the upcoming Assembly elections. State party chief K Surendran will be contesting from Konni and Manjeshwar, two constituencies, while metro man E Sreedharan will be fielded from Palakkad.
Former state BJP chief Kummanam Rajasekharan will be contesting from the much-talked Nemom while former Union Minister KJ Alphons has been fielded from Kanjirappally. Actor turned politician Suresh Gopi will be contesting from Thrissur.
