THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The BJP has almost finalised the candidates for 62 more seats to be contested in the upcoming Assembly elections.
The BJP core committee and election committee, which met here on Wednesday, decided to prepare the final list by Thursday evening and the same will be submitted to the central election committee of the party on March 25.
The BJP had already announced candidates for 22 seats. A decision has been taken to field strong candidates in glamour seats like Thiruvananthapuram, Harippad and Malampuzha. Efforts are on to mount further pressure on actor Suresh Gopi to contest from Thiruvananthapuram.
However, Suresh Gopi has not yet conceded to the demand. He is of the stand that he cannot campaign in other constituencies if he has to contest in this election.
BJP national president Amit Shah is also expected to talk to him in this regard.
State secretary V V Rajesh is to be fielded against Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala at Harippad constituency in Alappuzha district. C Krishna Kumar will be the party's candidate in Malampuzha where Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan is seeking re-election.
In Thiruvananthapuram district, the candidates for two more seats have been finalised. While Punchakkari Surendran is likely to be fielded from Neyyattinkara seat, Karamana Jayan is expected to be fielded from Parassala.
Yuva Morcha leader Prakash Babu is the candidate contesting against Pinarayi Vijayan at Dharmadam in Kannur district.
BJP leader from Palakkad, Sivarajan, will be fielded in Nemmara constituency.
BJP state secretary C Sivankutty and district president S Suresh are in the reckoning in the Aruvikkara seat where O Rajagopal came out with an unprecedented performance claiming over 34,000 votes during the bypoll necessitated following the death of former Speaker G Karthikeyan.
Sreeshant May be Fielded in Ernakulam
Cricketer S Sreeshant, who is actively being considered for being fielded as BJP candidate will get the ticket for Ernakulam constituency. Tripunithura is also being considered for him. However, in view of the fact that Thuravoor Viswambharan has already commenced his campaign from here, Sreeshant will finally be asked to contest from Ernakulam.