Thiruvananthapuram, March 13 (IANS) Kerala's ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Saturday named Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan's political secretary K.N. Balagopal and professor T.N. Seema, both in their 40s, as its nominees for elections to two Rajya Sabha seats.

While the CPI-M hopes to win both seats, the third Rajya Sabha seat to which elections will also be held is expected to be retained by Defence Minister A.K. Antony of the Congress.

The vacancies came up after the expiry of the tenure of Antony, CPI-M's V.S. Vijayaraghavan and IUML's P.V. Abdul Wahab.

The CPI-M at its state secretariat meeting held here zeroed down on Balagopal, 45, Malayalam professor Seema, 46, party leaders said.

While Balagopal was former national president of the Democratic Youth Federation of India, the youth wing of the CPI-M, Seema was associated with the people plan programme since its inception in the late 1990s and is the current state president of the Janadipathiya Mahila Association.

Both are members of the state committee of the CPI-M. Balagopal had earlier contested the state assembly elections but lost.

'I am delighted by this decision and I am confident that a lot of things can be done, especially for women,' Seema said.

The last date for filing of the nominations is March 16 and for withdrawal March 19. The polls are scheduled for March 26.

Antony will file his nomination papers Monday and the two CPI-M leaders are also expected to do so early next week.