Elections

Thiruvananthapuram: The Oommen Chandy government is readying for another fight with the Election Commission of India after the one over drinking water supply in tankers.

This time, it is the backlog and fresh sanctions of assistance from the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund. The Commission has stalled heavy pay outs from the Fund in the last days of the government.

Thiruvananthapuram: Though Congress drew up a preliminary list of candidates, it could not reach seat sharing agreements with UDF constituents such Janata Dal (U) and RSP in talks held today.

Talks with JD (U) had to be aborted following strong disagreement on Janata Dal (U)’s demand for Mattannur and Elathur seats.

The Congress also did not agree with demand of RSP for six seats, though it was willing to concede five. Talks with Kerala Congress (Mani) and Kerala Congress (Jacob) are pending.

The BJP has released its second of set of 51 candidates for Assembly elections in Kerala.

The list, approved by the Central Election Committee of Party on Friday with president Amit Shah in the chair include cricketer Sreesanth (Thiruvananthapuram), film director Ali akbar (Koduvally) and actor Bheerman Raghu (Pathanapuram)

Thiruvananthapuram: Seat sharing talks in the UDF is nowhere near closure even as the Congress is planning to take its draft list of candidates to Delhi for approval of Congress high command on Sunday.

The government is misleading the media and public regarding the purpose and implications of the notification exempting Vigilance and Anti-corruption Bureau (VACB) from the purview of right to information.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told the media after Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting that the notification—withdrawal of which had been demanded by KPCC president V. M. Sudheeran, RTI activists and others—was being retained to protect the lives and physical safety of informants. However, there is no need for such a notification to achieve that objective.