Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Who is K Surendran, BJP's challenger to Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad

In Kerala's well-known Wayanad seat, the Bharatiya Janata Party has selected state chairman K Surendran to challenge Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, which are set to take place in seven phases starting on April 19. 

Kerala's polity 

In Kerala, the Congress-led UDF and the CPI-led LDF have controlled politics for decades. The BJP is working to end this bipolarity. The candidates for the 12 seats have already been announced by the party. Four state seats will be up for grabs by its ally, BDJS.

Other contenders are G Krishnakumar from Kollam, KS Radhakrishnan from Ernakulam, and TN Sarasu, who will run in Alathur. Elections in Kerala's 20 Lok Sabha seats are scheduled for April 26. June 4 is when the votes will be tallied. 398 candidates have been announced by the ruling BJP for the 2018 Lok Sabha elections thus far. There will be seven stages to the parliamentary elections for the 543 constituencies, with the first phase starting on April 19 and ending on June 1. 

Who is K. Surendran? 

Since 2020, Surendran has been in charge of the Kerala BJP chapter. He represents the saffron party's ferocious protests against the admission of young ladies to Sabarimala in the past. Being from Ulleyeri in the Kozhikode district, he started his political career as the BJYM's Wayanad district president. 

He had run for Lok Sabha in 2019 from Pathanamthitta; however, his campaign was unsuccessful. In the same year, Surendran was fielded from Konni in the assembly bypoll but was unable to attend. It is also well known that Surendran is connected to Union Minister V. Muraleedharan. In the 2016 Assembly polls, he was defeated by just 89 votes in the Manjeswaram constituency. Additionally, Surendran was charged with intimidating K. Sundara, a BSP candidate, during the Manjeshwaram assembly election in 2021.