JD (U) names MP Veerendra Kumar as its Rajya Sabha candidate from Kerala

On expected lines, the parliamentary board of the Janata Dal (United) that met in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday gave its nod to MP Veerendra Kumar to file his nomination papers for the vacant Rajya Sabha seat from Kerala.

The 80-year-old media baron will file his nomination papers on March 12 and the elections will be held in the Kerala Assembly on March 23. The only Rajya Sabha seat from Kerala had fallen vacant after Veerendrakumar resigned in December 2017, when Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar decided to join the National Democratic Alliance. 

Party spokesperson Sheikh P Harris told the media that Veerendra was unanimously chosen to contest the seat that the Left Democratic Front had offered the party on Friday.

Veerendra had resigned from seat in December, after his party decided to end its alliance with the Congress-led UDF. After leaving the United Democratic Front, he had then made his thoughts clear on going back to the CPM-led Left Democratic Front.

In the meeting held at the state capital, the leaders decided to associate JD (U) with the Left Front for now instead of taking JD (U) into the LDF. Meanwhile, the leaders also said that a final decision on the merger of JD (U) and JD (S) will be made soon.

Kumar and his party remained part of the LDF till 2009, but shifted to the UDF camp after he was denied a chance to recontest the Kozhikode Lok Sabha seat.

Kumar lost the 2014 Lok Sabha polls by over 1 lakh votes and since then he was unhappy with the UDF.

The LDF has also decided to hold an election convention ahead of the Chengannur bypoll that will commence on March 20. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and all the top leaders of LDF will take part in the election convention.