Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 29 (IANS): In a surprise, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not named Kummanam Rajasekharan, its most popular face in Kerala, to contest the by-election, according to the BJP list released here on Sunday.

Rajasekharan had contested the recent Lok Sabha polls after quitting the post of Governor in Mizoram. Though Rajasekharan trailed winning Congress candidate Shashi Tharoor by almost 1,00,000 votes, he pushed the ruling Left candidate to the third position.

Rajasekharan was tipped to contest the Vattiyoorkavu Assembly by-election in the state capital, a seat which he had contested in 2016. Then also he had edged out the CPI-M candidate to the third position. The seat was won by Congress leader K. Muraleedharan.

On October 21, Kerala will see five Assembly by-elections, caused by resignation of three sitting UDF legislators -- K. Muraleedharan (Vattiyoorkavu), Hibi Eden (Ernakulam) and Adoor Prakash (Konni) who won Vadakara, Ernakulam and Attingal Lok Sabha seats, respectively, in May this year.

CPI-M leader A.M. Ariff, who won the Alappuzha Lok Sabha seat, quit the Aroor assembly constituency.

The fifth by-election has been caused by death of Indian Union Muslim League leader P.B. Abdul Razack last year. He represented Manjeswaram in the Assembly. The by-election to the seat was delayed due to an election petition filed by the BJP candidate K. Surendran in 2016.

Surendran had lost the Manjeswaram assembly seat by only 89 votes. This time he has been shifted to the Konni Assembly seat. The BJP has named C.G.Rajagopal for Ernakulam, K.P. Prakash Babu for Aroor and Raveesh Thantri Kuntar for Manjeswaram seat.