Kerala's all 20 Parliamentary seats will go to polls in the second phase on April 26. The southern state is expected to witness fierce battles in several constituencies, including Wayanad, where former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is taking on CPI's Annie Raja. While Kerala has been ruled alternatively by Congress and the Left parties, the grand old party virtually swept the state in the last general elections when it secured 15 of 20 seats.
Rahul Gandhi is contesting from the Wayanad seat, which he had won in 2019 by over 4 lakh votes. This time, he is up against CPI's Annie Raja and Kerala BJP chief K Surendran. Interestingly, the Congress and CPI are part of the INDIA bloc nationally. The CPI has targeted Rahul Gandhi for his decision to contest from Kerala, where the ruling party says the saffron party does not pose any threat.
In Kerala, the main contest is expected to be between the Congress and the Left but the BJP is also making efforts to put up a fight in some constituencies like Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram. In Thrissur, the BJP has fielded actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi, who is facing off against Congress' K Muraleedharan, and CPI's V S Sunilkumar. Muraleedharan won from Vatakara in the 2019 general elections.
| Kerala | Congress | Left | BJP |
| Wayanad | Rahul Gandhi | Annie Raja | K Surendran |
| Thrissur | K Muraleedharan | VS Sunil Kumar | Suresh Gopi |
| Attingal | Adoor Prakash | V Joy | V Muraleedharan |
| Pathanamthitta | Anto Antony | Thomas Issac | Anil Antony |
| Thiruvananthapuram | Shashi Tharoor | Pannyan Raveendran | Rajeev Chandrasekhar |
The BJP has never won any seat in Kerala, but Gopi hopes to win from Thrissur this time. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Gopi recorded an impressive surge in vote share to 28.19 per cent, marginally behind CPI's 30.85 per cent. TN Prathapan, however, bagged the seat by garnering 39.83 per cent votes.
Thiruvananthapuram is another key constituency where sitting Congress MP Shashi Tharoor is up against Union Minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar. CPI's Pannyan Raveendran may make it a three-cornered contest. India Today reported that political experts predict a nail-biting fight in Thiruvananthapuram, where the difference in the votes of the winner and the runner-up could be slender.
Tharoor faces voter fatigue after three consecutive terms as the MP from Thiruvananthapuram. "Tharoor has been representing the constituency for 15 years. His limited contributions to the improvement of the constituency is a matter of serious discussion and controversy. Anti-incumbency operates against him," G Gopa Kumar, senior political scientist and noted psephologist, told IndiaToday.In.
MG Radhakrishnan, a veteran journalist based in Thiruvananthapuram, said: "Tharoor's biggest challenge is the present BJP candidate and the voter fatigue. He hasn't delivered much as an MP in 15 years." He also said that Rajeev Chandrasekhar is likely to poach many sections that used to vote for Tharoor. "They include the apolitical middle class, the IT crowd, young voters, and upper caste Hindus."
In Attingal, Union Minister V Muraleedharan is the BJP's candidate against Adoor Prakash of Congress and V Joy of CPI(M). Pathanamthitta is another key constituency where former defence minister AK Antony's son Anil Antony is in the fray.