Thiruvananthapuram:
Moving ahead of its main political rival the ruling Congress-led UDF, CPI-M headed LDF in Kerala today declared names of candidates for 124 of the 140 seats for the May 16 Assembly polls in the state.
93-year-old CPI-M veteran V S Achuthanandan, party Politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan, three media personalities and popular Malayalam actor Mukesh are among the prominent candidates of the CPI-M in the 90 seats.
The party is contesting in 92 seats.
CPI, the second largest partner, declared the names of candidates in 25 seats out of 27 the party is contesting.
The front also announced candidates of its six front partners—Congress-S (1), Kerala Congress (Scaria) 1, INL -1, Janathiya Pathiya Kerala Congress four, RSP (Leninist) 1 and Kerala Congress-B (1).
LDF convener Vaikom Viswam released the list today at a press conference and said the remaining candidates for 16 seats including that of Front partners JD(S) and NCP would be declared in the next few days.
Achuthanandan will seek mandate from Malampuzha in Palakkad district while Vijayan from Dharmadam in politically sensitive Kannur district.
The CPI-M list includes party Central Committee member E P Jayarajan (Matanoor), Thomas Issac (Alappuzha), A K Balan (Tharoor) and actor Mukesh (Kollam).
The LDF list has 16 women candidates and 12 of them are from CPI-M and four from CPI. Eight LDF supported Independents are also contesting. A total of 43 sitting MLAs of LDF are in the list.
Former state minister and party leader in the present Assembly C Divakaran and two women legislators Geetha Gopi (Nattika) and party firebrand leader E S Bijimol (Peerumedu) are in the CPI list and equal number of CPI candidates are poll debutants.
Ramachandran Kadnapally is the Congress (S) candidate from Kannur segment.
Media personalities M V Nikesh Kumar, Veena George and Sebastin Paul, also a former MP, will contest from Azhikode, Aranmula and Thirkkakara respectively.
