In all, 290 candidates have filed nomination papers for the April 26 Lok Sabha elections in Kerala, Chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Kaul said on April 4.
The deadline for filing nominations ended on April 4. The scrutiny of the papers will be held on April 5. Altogether, 499 nomination papers have been filed with many candidates filing multiple sets.
More candidates filed nominations in the Thiruvananthapuram constituency than in any other. Thiruvananthapiram tops the list with 22 candidates. Alathur has the lowest number of eight. Nonetheless, a clear picture of the final list of candidates in the fray will be clear only by April 8, the last day for withdrawal of the nominations.
Candidates who filed their nominations on Thursday included LDF candidate in Alappuzha A.M. Ariff, UDF candidates K.C. Venugopal (Alappuzha), K. Muraleedharan (Thrissur), Adoor Prakash (Attingal), Ramya Haridas (Alathur), N.K. Premachandran (Kollam), Kodikkunnil Suresh (Mavelikara), and Hibi Eden (Ernakulam), and BJP candidates Rajeev Chandrasekhar (Thiruvananthapuram), and C. Raghunath (Kannur).
Constituency-wise number of candidates who have submitted nomination papers: Thiruvananthapuram 22, Attingal 14, Kollam 15, Pathanamthitta 10, Mavelikara 14, Alappuzha 14, Kottayam 17, Idukki 12, Ernakulam 14, Chalakudy 13, Thrissur 15, Alathur 8, Palakkad 16, Ponnani 20, Malappuram 14, Kozhikode 15, Wayanad 12, Vadakara 14, Kannur 18, Kasaragod 13.