The Kerala Assembly elections are something of a family affair: the sons and daughters of several politicians are hoping to make it to the seats of power.
Kerala Assembly has 140 seats which are going to polls on May 16, and 27 candidates in the fray are taking up where their parent (or relatives) left off.
UDF
The ruling UDF trumps everybody else with 17 candidates whose relatives are ministers, or have been former ministers or even former chief ministers in the state.
The prominent ones among these include Padmaja Venugopal (Thrissur) and K Muraleedharan (Vattiyurkavu), daughter and son of former chief minister K Karunakaran (deceased); MK Muneer, son of former CM CH Mohammed Koya; PK Abdurabb, son of former deputy CM Avukader Kutty Naha.
See the full list below:
LDF
The LDF is the lesser one here with eight such candidates. The prominent ones among these include KB Ganesh Kumar, son of former minister R Balakrishna Pillai; Jameela Prakasam, wife of former minister Neelalohitadas, Sarada Mohan, daughter of former CM PK Vasudevan Nair, MV Nikesh Kumar, son of former minister MV Raghavan; VR Sunil Kumar, son of former minister VK Rajan and K Francis George, son of former minister KM George.
See the full list below:
BJP
When it comes to cashing in on family political legacies, BJP is unique. There don’t appear to be any men or women building on their relatives’ legacies, but a wife-husband duo who are in the fray. Shobha Surendran is contesting the elections from Palakkad, while her husband, KK Surendran is fighting the elections from the Ponnani constituency.