M.P. Veerendra Kumar is JD-U's RS candidate from Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram, March 10 (IANS) On expected lines, the parliamentary board of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) that met here on Saturday gave its nod to M.P. Veerendra Kumar to file his nomination papers for the vacant Rajya Sabha seat from Kerala.

The 80-year-old media baron will file his nominations on March 12 and the elections will be held in the Kerala assembly on March 23.

Party spokesperson Sheikh P. Harris told the media that Kumar was unanimously chosen to contest the seat that the Left Democratic Front had offered to the party on Friday.

Kumar had resigned from seat in December, after his party decided to end its alliance with the Congress-led UDF.

Kumar and his party remained part of the LDF till 2009, but shifted to the UDF camp after he was denied a chance to recontest the Kozhikode Lok Sabha seat.

Kumar lost the 2014 Lok Sabha polls by over one lakh votes and since then he was unhappy with the UDF. However, the UDF kept him happy by offering him a Rajya Sabha seat in 2016 and when he had decided to quit the UDF, he put in his resignation in December 2017.