Chief Minister and others file nominations

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and some of the ministers of his Cabinet filed their nominations for Kerala Assembly elections on Friday, the last day for filing nominations.

The Chief Minister filed his nomination before the returning office this morning to contest from Puthupally.

The Ministers who filed their nominations included Ramesh Chennithala (Haripad), P. J. Joseph (Thodupuzha), K. Babu (Tripoonithura) and Adoor Prakash (Konni). Prominent leaders who filed nominations from the Left Front included S. Sarma (Vypin) and M. Swaraj (Tripoonithura).

BJP leader O. Rajagopal (Nemom) and actor Bhimen Raghu (the BJP candidate for Pathanapuram) also filed their nominations on Friday.

The Congress is facing dissident threat in Kannur district. Dissident P. K. Ragesh is contesting in Azhikode constituency.  Congressmen have also filed nominations in the name of farmers’ congress in three other constituencies of the district.  Sobhana George has filed nominations to contest from Chengannur. The Congress candidate there is P. C. Vishnunath.

A total of 1647 nominations have been filed for the elections. The highest number of nominations are in Malappuram (204) and the lowest in Wayanad (41).

The scrutiny of nominations will take place on Saturday.  The last date for withdrawal of nominations is May 2.