22 candidates in BJP’s first list for Kerala polls

The Bharatiya Janata Party yesterday released its first list of 22 candidates for the May 16 Kerala assembly elections, which includes veteran O Rajagopal and newly-appointed state unit president Kummanem Rajasekheran.Former state BJP presidents, including P S Sreedharan Pillai, C K Padmanabhan, P K Krishna Das and V Muraleedharan, also figure in the first list.The BJP is yet to win entry to the 140-member assembly.In the 2011 assembly polls, three BJP candidates came second in their respective segments, while the party’s nominees in all other constituencies were a distant third.The first BJP list for the assembly polls was released after a daylong meeting of party office-bearers. The seat-sharing with BJP’s new ally - Hindu Ezhava leader Vellapalli Natesan’s Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) - is still not finalised.The BDJS joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance on March 3.