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The CPI(M), lead partner in the ruling Left Democratic Front, announced candidates for 15 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala on Tuesday, including former state ministers KK Shailaja and TM Thomas Isaac.

Besides four sitting MLAs, the Marxist party also decided to field two of its sitting MPs, one from Lok Sabha and another from Rajya Sabha, as part of its bid to wrest significant number of seats from the Congress-led UDF.

With the announcement by the CPI(M), all 20 LDF candidates for the Lok Sabha elections in the southern state have been declared.

In a notable move, the Left party nominated four of its sitting MLAs, including Devaswom Minister K Radhakrishnan, to contest in key constituencies.

In the upcoming general elections, both political heavyweights Thomas Isaac and Shailaja will contest from Pathanamthitta and Vadakara seats, respectively.

Actor-turned MLA M Mukesh has been nominated from the Kollam seat, currently held by senior parliamentarian and RSP leader NK Premachandran, while V Joy MLA will vie for the Attingal seat.

Sitting MP AM Arif will seek re-election from the Alappuzha seat, while trade union leader and Rajya Sabha member Elamaram Kareem will enter the electoral fray from Kozhikode.

Announcing the list of candidates during a press conference held here, party state secretary MV Govindan said the upcoming general election is crucial for the country.

Additionally, he also said although the CPI(M) is part of the INDIA bloc along with the Congress, the Left party’s state secretary did not hold back when he claimed that no one in Kerala believed that Rahul Gandhi would become the next prime minister. Moreover, he should contest from the Hindi belt instead of Wayanad.

The LDF’s secular politics is the only alternative to the “extreme Hindu majoritarianism” proposed by the BJP and the “soft Hindutva” stand of the Congress, he added.

Exuding confidence that the party candidates would win all the 20 seats, the Left leader said the Rahul Gandhi factor, which had helped the Congress party win substantial number of seats during the 2019 poll, would not favour them this time.