Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash, Excise Minister K Babu, Culture Minister KC Joseph, all from the Congress, and former Union Minister O Rajagopal of the BJP were among the top leaders who filed nomination papers for the May 16 Assembly election on Friday, the last date for filing the papers.
Former Minister KB Ganesh Kumar of the Kerala Congress (B), currently an ally of the CPI(M)-led lDF, and Congress leader K Sudhakaran also filed their papers on Friday. A total of about 1,300 aspirants have filed papers for candidature in the Assembly election since the start of the process on April 22.
Scrutiny of the nominations will be held on Saturday and the last date for withdrawing nominations is May 2. Polling in Kerala will be held on May 16 and votes will be counted on May 19. The day of polling, May 16, will be a holiday for the Government sector, public sector enterprises and commercial establishments.
Chandy, the face of the Congress in Kerala and fighting the Assembly election for the 11th time from his home constituency, Puthuppally, filed his nomination papers on Friday morning before the Block Development Officer in Pampady in Kottayam district. He was accompanied by his son Chandy Oommen, Jose K Mani MP and several other leaders.
“The (Congress-led ruling) UDF is absolutely confident of victory in the coming election. The people of Kerala will certainly give the UDF an opportunity to continue its rule for another five years,” Chandy told newsmen after filing the papers with which he submitted an affidavit in which he stated that there was no case pending in any court against him.
Chennithala is contesting the election from Harippad in Alappuzha district while Prakash is the Congress candidate in Konni, Pathanamthitta district. KC Joseph is contesting the polls for the eighth consecutive time from the Iritti seat in Kannur district while Babu is the Congress candidate in Thripunithura in Ernakulam district which he has been representing since 1991.
