Thiruvananthapuram: Two Kerala leaders had their hearts in their mouths for nearly two days over the finality of their nomination procedure. Finally, just before midnight on Tuesday, the respective collectors of the two districts cleared their nominations, lifting a great weight off the minds of the Kerala Congress (M) and the Congress parties.
In the Kottayam constituency, there had been uncertainty over the formalities related to Kerala Congress (M) leader Jose K. Mani’s nomination, and Congress leader Bindu Krishna faced a similar predicament in the Attingal constituency.
Their opponents, the Left Democratic Front and the Bharatiya Janata Party have not exactly been pleased over the developments and have announced that they would take legal recourse regarding the matter. For the LDF in Attingal, it has been a double blow of sorts: Not only has Bindu Krishna’s nomination been cleared by the election officials, but the nomination of a namesake of the LDF candidate, Sampath A, has also been approved.
The clearing of the nominations of Mani and Krishna were officially announced by Kottayam and Kollam district collectors Ajith Kumar and Biju Prabhakar.
The candidacy of Jose K. Mani was a virtual touch-and-go affair and scores of party workers were keeping their fingers crossed as election officials discussed whether or not to accept the nomination. The officials’ doubts were regarding some organisational details of his party, the Kerala Congress (M), particularly the designations of its key leaders.
The final decision of the election officials was expected at 7pm on Tuesday, but it was another four hours before the decision came and Kerala Congress (M) officials could heave a sigh of relief. Jose K Mani is the son of Kerala Congress (M) leader and finance minister KM Mani. An irregularity that had been noticed in Jose K Mani’s nomination papers was that KM Mani had signed in the slot for the party chairman. However, the election commission’s website showed CF Thomas as the Kerala Congress (M) chairman.
KM Mani said there had been a conspiracy by the LDF and the BJP against the candidature of Jose K Mani. The Kerala Congress (M) had not put up a dummy candidate in case Jose K Mani’s candidature was rejected, and therefore tension ran high in the party as the election officials went through their final scrutiny and decision-making. Jose K Mani is the sitting MP in Kottayam, and faces LDF candidate Mathew T Thomas this time.
