2 min readThiruvananthapuramUpdated: Mar 17, 2026 09:39 PM IST
The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), a partner in the Congress-led Opposition UDF alliance in Kerala, on Tuesday announced a list of 25 candidates for the upcoming Assembly election. The list includes two women, one of whom is a Hindu.
Jayanthi Rajan, who is from a Dalit community, was appointed one of the party’s national assistant secretaries last year. She will contest from the Koothuparamba constituency in Kannur district in the election scheduled to take place on April 9.
The other woman in the IUML list was Fathima Thahilya, who will take on senior CPI(M) leader and the convener of the ruling LDF alliance, T P Ramakrishnan, in the Perambra seat in Kozhikode. Fathima, who is one of the state secretaries of the Muslim Youth League, had previously raised the demand for greater gender representation in the IUML.
The party had fielded only one woman candidate, Noorbina Rasheed, in the 2021 Kerala Assembly elections. She was the party’s first woman Assembly election candidate in 25 years.
Announcing the list of candidates for 2026, IUML state president Sadik Ali Shihab Thangal said the party would contest in 27 seats, and that the names of candidates for two constituencies — Punalur and Chelakkara — would be announced later.
The IUML, which has 15 legislators in the outgoing Assembly, has brought in a generational change in the selection of candidates in 2026. The party has dropped seven sitting legislators, including six-time legislator Dr M K Muneer. Prominent among the sitting legislators seeking election again are P K Kunhalikutty, M Ali and N Shamsudheen.
The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church had asked the Congress to take back the Thiruvambady seat in Kozhikode district and field a Catholic candidate, but this was not to be. The seat was contested by an IUML candidate, unsuccessfully, in 2021. The IUML will again contest the seat for the UDF this time.
