VS loses CPM's star-campaigner tag

Thiruvananthapuram: Political parties in Kerala are yet to come out with their lists of star campaigners for Lok Sabha polls even as major national parties like BJP and Congress had submitted a list in this regard to the Election Commission of India recently.

The CPM has ousted former chief minister VS Achuthanandan from theirs. Though the old warhorse that campaigned for 2016 Assembly election will be present in party events, his name is not included in a list provided to the Election Commission.

Pinarayi Vijayan, S Ramachandran Pillai, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, MA Baby, Thomas Isaac, A Vijayaraghavan, Elamaram Kareem, Viju Krishnan, AR Sindhu are the CPM leaders from Kerala. Its national general secretary Sitaram Yechury too is on the list.

Congress list has UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh. Kerala politician KV Thomas, who was denied a seat in Ernakulam, is also a star campaigner of the party. Also on the list are former KPCC president Thennala Balakrishna Pillai and KSU president K M Abhijith.

Kanam Rajendran, Binoy Viswam, Pannyan Raveendran, Anne Raja and KE Ismail are CPI’s star campaigners. Kanhaiya Kumar too features on the list.

The Muslim League has leaders like Hyderali Shihab Thangal on its list.

As is the practice, parties submit state-specific list of star campaigners. Such lists often include party bigwigs as well as celebrities.