Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 24 (IANS): BJP's Kerala unit President K. Surendran will be the NDA candidate from Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, where he will take on Congress leader and sitting MP Rahul Gandhi and Left Front candidate Annie Raja, the wife of CPI national General Secretary D. Raja, as per the party's fifth list released on Sunday.

Though Surendran had earlier announced that he would not be contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP's national leadership wanted a strong candidate against Rahul Gandhi, even though the BJP does not have much presence there.

In the 2019 election, Gandhi, securing 7,06,367 votes, won by a margin of 4,31,770 votes against CPI's P.P. Suneer, who could only get 2,74,597 votes. The NDA was represented by its constituent BDJS's state President Thushar Vellapally but he could get only 78,816 votes.

The BJP has also announced the candidates for three other seats in the state - K.S. Radhakrishnan (Ernakulam), T.M. Sarasu (Alathur-SC), and popular Malayalam actor G.Krishnakumar (Kollam).