Kerala Assembly Polls
Kerala MBA Graduate declines to contest assembly polls after BJP names him as candidate
Thiruvananthapuram/IBNS: A 31-year-old MBA student has declined to contest the Assembly election in Kerala next month after he was enlisted as a candidate by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from the Mananthawady seat in the Wayanad district.
Manikuttan was the first from the Paniya tribe of that region to have an MBA degree, the BJP had said while releasing a list of candidates on Sunday evening.
However, Manikuttan has not just declined the BJP's offer "with due respect" but also announced that he is quitting politics.
The Mananthawady seat is reserved for Scheduled Tribes.
"Central leadership had announced me as the BJP candidate. I'm actually a common man, I do not want to get into the politics of elections. I want to have a job and family. So, I'm happily refusing this offer from the party," Manikuttan was quoted as saying by NDTV.
"I was surprised and panicked when I saw my name announced on TV. I am really happy that the BJP chose to field someone from the Paniya community. But I had told them over the phone itself that I would not be willing to be a BJP candidate," he told the channel.
This comes as the BJP tries to pitch a campaign in the southern state by projecting its high-profile recruit 88-year-old "Metro Man" E Sreedharan.
The BJP has only one MLA in the state ruled by the Left Democratic Front, led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The saffron party is trying to make an inroad in the state on the goodwill of Sreedharan, a former engineer who led the Delhi Metro and other big infrastructure projects across the country.
Kerala will vote to elect a new government on April 6. Votes will be counted on May 2.
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