Thiruvananthapuram: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday announced that A P Abdullakutty, its national vice president, would be the party's candidate for the April 6 Malappuram Lok Sabha constituency by-election.

The by-poll was mandated due to the resignation of Indian Union Muslim League leader P K Kunhalikutty from the seat to ''lead his party's poll campaign'' for the assembly election.

The Election Commission of India had earlier announced that the Malappuram Lok Sabha by-poll would be conducted along with the Assembly polls in 140 constituencies in Kerala.

A two-time CPI(M) MP, Abdullakutty was first expelled from the Left party in 2009 for expressing admiration for Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was the Gujarat Chief minister. He later joined the Congress and was twice elected to the state assembly.

The Congress had in June 2019 expelled him from the party, days after he lavished praise on the PM for the BJP-led NDA's massive victory in the 2019 general election.

In a Facebook post, Abdullakutty had said the NDA's victory was an acceptance of Modi's development agenda and the secret of his success was that he adopted Gandhian values.

Meanwhile, Kunhalikutty had in 2017 resigned to the Vengara constituency in the Assembly and got elected as an MP from Malappuram in a by-election after the death of former Union Minister and senior IUML leader E Ahamed and continued to win the 2019 LS polls too.

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