Union Ministers Shashi Tharoor and K V Thomas are among the 15 candidates to be put up by Congress in Kerala for the Lok Sabha polls.
The candidates list submitted by the state unit and approved by AICC retained most of the sitting MPs, including three other Union ministers from the state--Mullapally Ramachandran (Vatakara), K C Venugopal (Alappuzha) and Kodikunnil Suresh (Mavelikkara), according to party sources here.
Renomination of party spokesman P C Chacko, who headed the JPC on the 2G spectrum scam, from his sitting seat Thrissur is yet to be decided while P T Thomas, sitting MP from Idukki, has been dropped, the sources said.
The list is to be officially announced by AICC tomorrow.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, KPCC president V M Sudheeran and Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala had held discussions with AICC office bearers in charge of the state.
Tharoor will be seeking a second term from Thiruvananthapuram while Thomas is making his second consecutive bid from his home turf Ernakulam.
Congress this time is contesting 15 of the 20 seats. Its sitting Kollam seat has been allocated to RSP, which recently joined UDF, while Palakkad, where the party unsuccessfully contested last time, has been given to SJD.
Former Union Minister M P Veerendrakumar has been chosen as the SJD nominee in Palakkad.
The new faces in Congress list include state Mahila Congress president Bindu Krishna (Attingal) and T Siddique (Kasargode), both sitting seats of CPI(M).
Key ally of Congress Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has already announced that Union minister E Ahamed will be back in the fray in Malappuram. The Kerala Congress(M) will be putting up Jose K Mani from his sitting seat Kottayam.
Though LDF is yet to finalise the list of candidates, CPI has announced its nominees for four seats allocated to the party.
BJP has also announced its contestants for most of the seats, which includes senior leader and former Union minister O Rajagopal in Thiruvananthapuram.
The fledgling AAP has also drawn up a list for some seats, which includes eminent writer Sara Joseph.
