Bharatiya Janata Party’s Kerala chief K Surendran has been fielded against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the Wayanad constituency for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, scheduled to take place from April 19 in seven phases.
Who is K Surendran?
Kunnummel Surendran, hailing from Ulleyeri in Kozhikode district, has been serving as the president of the BJP in Kerala since 2020. He began his political career as Wayanad district president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha and had unsuccessfully contested from Pathanamthitta in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Surendran is reportedly a close confidant of Union Minister V Muraleedharan. He lost the Manjeswaram constituency by a mere 89 votes in the 2016 Assembly polls.
During the 2021 assembly election, Surendran was accused of threatening BSP candidate K Sundara in the Manjeshwaram.