On March 16 the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced that Kerala will host the 18th Lok Sabha elections on April 26. This year the General Election is taking place in seven phases. Voting in Kerala will take place in the second phase of the polls along with other 13 States. The vote counting will take place on June 4. April 4 was the deadline for nominations, while April 8 was the deadline for nomination withdrawals.
Kerala will go on a single poll date on April 26 unlike States like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal which have multiple poll dates. Kerala holds 20 constituencies and is ranked 12th in terms of the number of constituencies it has. Out of 20 constituencies, two seats — Alathur and Mavelikara — are reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates.
Candidates
Kerala, mainly is a safe State for the Congress in the General Election. The Congress was able to keep its grounds in Kerala by winning 19 seats out of 20 in 17th Lok Sabha polls. For 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Left Democratic Parties (LDF), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) is contesting for 15 seats, the Communist Party of India (CPI) for four seats and Kerala Congress M (KCEM) for one seat.
From the United Democratic Front (UDF), the Indian National Congress (INC) is contesting for 16 seats, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) for 2 seats, the Kerala Congress (KEC) and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) for one seat. The INC is the major party in INDIA bloc and the LDF is also supporting the alliance. From the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) — the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is contesting for 16 seats and the Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) for four seats.
The BJP has never opened an account in Kerala. For 2019 General Election the BJP got zero seat from the State.
But in 2019, the BJP got major vote shares from the Assembly segments of constituencies like Kasargod, Thrissur, Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta and Attingal.
The major candidates include K.K. Shailaja (CPI(M)), Shafi Parambil (INC), Thomas Issac (CPI(M)), A.M. Arrif [CPI(M), V. Muraleedharan (BJP), A. Vijayaraghavan [CPI(M)], Elamaram Kareem [CPI(M), M.K. Raghavan (INC). M. Abdul Salam is the sole muslim candidate from the BJP contesting from Kerala.
Constituencies such as Thiruvananthapuram, Wayanad and Kollam are poised to have a tough competition. Parties have fielded their strong candidates in all these constituencies. In Thiruvananthapuram incumbent MP Shashi Tharoor (INC) is contesting against Union Minister Rajeev Chandrashekar (BJP) and Pannyan Raveendran (CPI). In Wayanad sitting MP Rahul Gandhi (INC) is contesting against Annie Raja (CPI) and K. Surendran (BJP). In Kollam Sitting MP Mukesh (CPI(M)) is contesting with N.K. Premachandran (RSP) and G. Krishnakumar (BJP).
