Social Democratic Party of India to contest 20 seats in Kerala

KOZHIKODE: Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the political front of the Popular Front of India (PFI), will contest all the 20 seats in Kerala in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls. SDPI national secretary Mehboob Awaz Shareif said the party has decided to field 42 candidates in nine states in the country.
Nazaradeen Elamaram, SDPI state general secretary, will contest the Malappuram seat while another general secretary P Abdul Hameed will contest from Vadakara.Sufaira K P, who is the candidate for Thrissur, is the lone woman in the list.
Musthafa Kommeri, SDPI district general secretary, will contest the Kozhikode seat and state general secretary M K Manoj Kumar will be the candidate from Attingal.
K M Ashraf, SDPI state president, said the party wants the Madav Gadgil committee report on the protection of the Western Ghats to be implemented with certain assurances from the government. To a question, he said SDPI does not think that BJP will come into power at the Centre. The party is holding discussions with other regional and secular parties on seat sharing in other states, he said.
SDPI, which was formed in 2009, has presence in 16 states in India including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.