BJP fielded this young leader against Priyanka Gandhi in Wayanad by-election

Thiruvananthapuram: BJP on Saturday announced that Navya Haridas, a two-time councillor in Kozhikode Corporation, will be the NDA candidate for the Wayanad Lok Sabha by-election.

Navya Haridas will face Congress’ Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Left candidate CPI’s Satyan Mokeri in the by-election to be held on November 13.

BJP has released its list of candidates for the upcoming by-elections to be held in various states, in which the saffron party’s young woman leader Navya Haridas has been made the party’s candidate for this important seat.

Navya Haridas, a software engineer by profession, is the leader of the BJP’s parliamentary party in the corporation.

According to party sources, she is also the state general secretary of the Mahila Morcha.

The by-election for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat had become necessitated as Rahul Gandhi had won the Lok Sabha election from there and also from the Rae Bareli constituency, he decided to vacate it.

Meanwhile, BJP state general secretary C Krishnakumar will contest from Palakkad assembly constituency, where the saffron party is hoping to win the most in the upcoming by-polls in the state.

During the last assembly elections, the party had come an impressive second in Palakkad through ‘Metroman’ E. Sreedharan, who was defeated by Congress’ Shafi Parambil in a close contest.

Though the names of several high profile leaders, including senior leader Shobha Surendran, were doing the rounds in the region, the party high command finally chose Krishnakumar.

Youth Congress state president Rahul Mamkootathil and expelled Congress digital media convenor P. Sareen will be the Congress and CPI(M) candidates in the constituency respectively.

According to the BJP candidate list, K. Balakrishnan will be the party’s candidate in Chelakkara assembly constituency.

Former MLA U.R. Pradeep and former MP Ramya Haridas will be the CPI(M) and Congress candidates respectively in Chelakkara during the bypoll.

The bypolls to Palakkad and Chelakkara assembly constituencies are being held as the MLAs from there, Shafi Parambil and K. Radhakrishnan respectively, were elected to the Lok Sabha this year.