THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Amid speculations that the party would likely not contest for the Nilambur bypoll seat, the BJP leadership has announced their candidate, former Kerala Congress Joseph Malappuram district president Advocate Mohan George.
62-year-old Mohan George is a native of Chungathara. He is a lawyer by profession, working at Nilambur and Manjeri. He is the former general secretary KSC, KYF, Mar Thoma Sabha council member and Mar Thoma college council member. He also acted as a vice president at Chungathara Mar Thoma Church, YMCA Chungathara.
The party leadership chose to pick the candidate from the Christian community in an attempt to split a chunk of Christian votes.
The Christian community makes up about 12 per cent of the total votes in the constituency. BJP hopes to attract community votes in the aftermath of the human-wildlife conflict and the Munambam Waqf land issue.
With PV Anwar also expected to contest, Nilambur will witness a strong fight.
Earlier, there were differences of opinion among BJP leaders about whether to contest or not, since one faction inside the party thought the Nilambur by-election was an imposed one.
Later, the BJP decided to leave the seat to BDJS, which also didn't want to take over the seat. However, the BJP decided to field its own candidate.
In the last election, BJP candidate TK Ashok Kumar won 8595 votes with a vote share of 1.9%.