Thiruvananthapuram: Defence minister AK Antony will not contest the Lok Sabha polls from Kerala, a senior Congress leader said on Sunday.
Addressing reporters here, Congress' Kerala unit president VM Sudheeran said Antony, a Rajya Sabha member, had called him up after media reports about his likely candidature from Kerala and asked him to issue a denial.
"He has asked me to inform the media that he is not going to contest the polls," said Sudheeran after a meeting of the party's election committee which sat for the first time to prepare the list of candidates.
The Congress party normally contests 17 seats out of the 20 seats in the state.
