By Ashraf Padanna/Thiruvananthapuram

The Congress Party has finalised candidates for all but one constituency for the April 10 Lok Sabha elections from Kerala.
All the outgoing members of parliament except two (P C Chacko of Thrissur and P T Thomas of Idukki) figure in the list to be released today, reports from New
Delhi said. The list blends youth with experience.
Anil Akkara, 39, the hero of organic farming in Thrissur’s waterlogged low-lying paddy fields who won the CNN-IBN’s Young Indian of the Year honour in 2011, is being considered for Thrissur to replace Chacko.
Youth Congress president in Kerala, Dean Kuriakose, will be in place of Thomas in Idukki while former Youth Congress president T Sidheeque will contest from Kasaragod ensuring a tight three-cornered fight with P Karunakaran, the sitting MP of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s K Surendran.
There are two women candidates - Bindu Krishna, the president of the party’s women’s wing in Attingal and E K Sheba who will be fielded in the reserved constituency of Alathur.
In the state capital, author-diplomat-politician Shashi Tharoor will be locked in a tight fight with veteran BJP leader O Rajagopal and Dr Bennet Abraham, a prominent member of the Church of South India (CSI) fielded by the Communist Party of India (CPI) with an eye on the backward but numerically powerful Nadar votes.
Other sitting MPs who will seek re-election are K V Thomas (Ernakulam), Mullappally Ramachandran (Vatakara), K C Venugopal (Alappuzha), Kodikunnil Suresh (Mavelikkara), Anto Antony (Pathanamthitta), K P Dhanapalan (Chalakkudy), M I Shanavas (Wayanad), M K Raghavan (Kozhikode) and K  Sudhakaran (Kannur).
The opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) led by the CPM is also fielding candidates from different backgrounds like popular actor Innocent (Chalakkudy), top retired bureaucrat Christy Fernandez (Ernakulam) and Congress rebels V Abdul Rahman (Ponnani) and Peelipose Thomas in Pathanamthitta where the contest is between supporters and opponents of the proposed airport at Aranmuala.
P C Chacko, who chaired the joint parliamentary committee that probed the alleged 2G telecom licence scam was forced to opt out due to local opposition. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi reportedly shot down his request for a change in constituency.
The party’s allies in the United Democratic Front (UDF), the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the Kerala Congress (Mani), the Socialist Janata (Democratic) and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) will field their candidates in the remaining five constituencies.
The IUML is fielding junior foreign minister E Ahamed in Malappuram, where his opponent is a young Muslim woman leader of the CPM, and E T Mohamed Basheer in Ponnani while Jose K Mani is the KC(M)’s candidate designate in Kottayam.
RSP leader A Premachandran, who left the LDF last week, is the party’s candidate in Kollam against M A Baby, a member of the CPM’s politburo, and former education minister of the state.
The SJD is fielding its president and media baron M P Veerendra Kumar in Palakkad against the young sitting MP from the CPM, M B Rajesh, who had won the seat by a slender margin last time defeating Congress leader Satheesan Pacheni.
Kerala leaders including Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and state Congress president V M Sudheeran are in the national capital for consultations with the central leadership.
Kerala sends 20 members to the Lok Sabha and for a long time the pattern of seat sharing in the UDF has been Congress - 17, IUML - two, and Kerala Congress (Mani) - one.
In the 2009 polls, the Congress won 13 of the 17 seats allocated to it, while the IUML won from both constituencies and KC (Mani) won its seat too.