Nearly 400 file Lok Sabha nominations in Kerala
Candidates in a dozen constituencies will face namesake trouble as candidates’ list will feature two or more people with similar names
Thiruvananthapuram: Going by the decibel levels at the Lok Sabha poll campaign in Kerala, public participation appears to be at a notch lower than in recent times, but interest in contesting the polls seems to have gone up.
Election commission officials are finalising data related to the total nominations in the state, but rough estimates point to a figure close to 400, compared to the 324 candidates in the fray in 2009. Kerala has 20 Lok Sabha constituencies.
Early data shows that the Ernakulam constituency has the largest number of candidates, a mind-boggling 49. The constituency features a straight contest between Congress leader and federal minister K.V. Thomas and former bureaucrat and Left Democratic Front-backed independent Christy Fernandez.
Ernakulam is followed by Chalakudy, which has 47 candidates, including movie star Innocent, who is contesting as an LDF-supported candidate.
Constituencies with the least number of candidates are Mavelikkara, Kottayam and Alathur, which have only 15 candidates each vying for a place in the Lok Sabha.
Candidates in a dozen constituencies in Kerala will face namesake trouble as the candidates’ list will feature two or more people with similar names.
For example, in the Thiruvananthapuram constituency where the Communist Party of India’s Bennet Abraham and Bharatiya Janata Party’s O. Rajagopal are contesting, there are two other contestants, named B. Bennet Babu and P. Rajagopal.
In nearby Kollam constituency, where the Revolutionary Socialist Party’s N.K. Premachandran and Communist Party of India Marxist’s M.A. Baby are in the fray, there is another candidate named Baby as well as two other Premachandrans.
One lucky candidate this time is Kerala Congress candidate in Kottayam, Jose K. Mani, who is the also the sitting MP in the constituency. In the previous Lok Sabha election, his namesake Jose K. Mani had also contested and polled more than 2,000 votes. This time, however, the other Jose K. Mani who lives in Delhi has decided not to contest. Interestingly, while the MP Jose K. Mani’s father is state finance minister K.M. Mani, the namesake Jose K. Mani’s father is also named K.M. Mani.
The election commission will scrutinise the nomination papers on Monday, after which a clear picture will emerge of the candidates approved for contesting.
