India, April 24 -- In a first, Alankode Leelakrishnan was fielded by the Communist Party of India (CPI) as a candidate for the Kerala elections. Known in the Malayalam literary space as a poet and cultural activist, his entry marks a shift from being part of the Left movement to active politics.

Contesting from the Thrissur constituency, Leelakrishnan is up against the BJP's Padmaja Venugopal and the Congress's Rajan J. Pallan.

The Thrissur Assembly constituency has seen closely contested elections in recent years. In the 2021 Kerala Assembly elections, CPI's P. Balachandran won the seat by a narrow margin of 946 votes, defeating Congress candidate Padmaja Venugopal.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Hindust...