Thiruvananthapuram: The state is all set to witness a heated election campaign for the Lok Sabha elections as all candidates have submitted their nominations. As per the Election Commission's schedule, April 4, Thursday was the last date for filing nominations for the polls. A total of 290 candidates are in the fray from 20 constituencies in Kerala.
Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar of the BJP, AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal, BJP state chief K Surendran, actor-cum-politician Suresh Gopi and Congress MP K Muraleedharan were some of the top political leaders who on Thursday filed nominations for the polls. Besides them, UDF MPs N K Premachandran, Hibi Eden, Ramya Haridas and Adoor Prakash, LDF MP A M Ariff and Congress MLA from Palakkad Shafi Parambil also submitted their nomination papers on Thursday.
Polling will be held in all of Kerala's 20 parliamentary constituencies on April 26 in the second phase of the nationwide polls.
Chandrasekhar, who is BJP's candidate from the Thiruvananthapuram seat, was accompanied by Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar and other senior party leaders while filing his nomination papers. Chandrasekhar is fighting against senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, the local MP, and CPI veteran Pannian Raveendran.
Congress leader Venugopal, also a Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan, filed his nomination before the returning officer in Alappuzha accompanied by senior party leaders. Surendran and Gopi filed their nominations from Wayanad and Thrissur Lok Sabha seats, respectively. While Gopi was flanked by local party leaders, Surendran was accompanied by Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani. Surendran will be facing off against sitting Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and CPI leader Annie Raja in the hill constituency of Wayanad. Gopi is pitted against K Muraleedharan, who is the sitting Congress MP from Vatakara, and CPI leader V S Sunil Kumar from the central Kerala Lok Sabha seat of Thrissur. Muraleedharan, son of Congress stalwart and former Kerala CM late K Karunakaran, also filed his nomination on Thursday in the presence of party colleagues.
C Krishnakumar, the BJP-led NDA's candidate from Palakkad seat and Premachandran the RSP MP from Kollam seeking another term from the same constituency, also filed nominations on Thursday. The RSP is part of the UDF. Besides them, Eden, Haridas, Prakash, Ariff and Parambil filed their nominations from Ernakulam, Alathur, Attingal, Alappuzha and Vatakara, respectively, during the day. Parambil was accompanied by Achu Oommen, daughter of Congress stalwart and former Kerala CM late Oommen Chandy, and RSP MLA K K Rema as he walked to the district collector's office to file his nomination. Ariff was accompanied by state Culture Minister Saji Cheriyan and CPI(M) politburo member M A Baby.
Many of the candidates held road shows or on-foot marches before filing their nominations at the respective district headquarters to showcase their ground support and strength. As of 7.45 pm on April 4, the last date for filing nominations from Kerala, 453 nominations have been received by the Election Commission from the state. As per records, 290 nominations were received in file. The nominations will be scrutinised on April 5 and the last date for withdrawing the candidature is April 8.
(With PTI inputs)
