Campaigning in the Ernakulam and Chalakudy Lok Sabha constituencies will get a new vigour from Friday with almost all major candidates filing their nominations.
The independent candidate supported by the Left democratic Front (LDF), Christy Fernandez, filed his nomination for the Ernakulam constituency on Thursday accompanied by senior CPI(M) leaders while Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Anita Pratap could not meet the returning officer in time because of the traffic bottlenecks en route. She will file the nomination on Friday morning. Congress candidate K.V. Thomas and BJP’s A.N. Radhakrishnan have already filed their nominations. For Chalakudy, P.C. Chacko of the UDF and actor Innocent of the LDF filed their nominations on Thursday with the Ernakulam District Collector and returning officer M.G. Rajamanickam at his chamber at Kakkanad.
On Thursday, Ambujakshan of Welfare Party of India filed the first nomination. Mr Christy met the returning officer at 11.25 a.m. He was accompanied by P.Rajeev, MP; S.Sharma, MLA; CPI(M) district secretary C.M. Dinesh Mani; and CPI leader P.Raju.
Mr Innocent reached the collectorate at 11.35 a.m. accompanied by CPI(M) leaders C.N. Mohanan, M.C. Josephine, K.K. Ashraf and U.P. Joseph. Both Mr Innocent and Mr Christy exchanged pleasantries. Mr. Chacko filed his nomination at 12 noon and was accompanied by UDF convener P.P. Thankachan; V.P. Sacheendran, MLA; DCC president V.J. Poulose; and Congress leader Babu Joseph.
M.K. Krishnankutty of CPI(ML) and N.J. Paul of MCPI (U) too filed their nominations for the Ernakulam constituency. For Chalakudy, AAP candidate K.N. Nooruddin and independents K.C. Poulose and P.Mohanan filed the papers.
Training for officialsWhile electioneering in the district is gathering pace with political parties leaving no stone unturned to woo the electorate, the official machinery is getting ready for the conduct of polls. On Thursday, the training for government officers on poll duty in the 2,027 polling booths in the district started in Kochi.
According to officials, each polling booth will have four officials, including a presiding officer. A list of 11,311 officials, including 3,203 reserve officers from various departments has been drawn up. The first phase of training for officers for deployment in Tripunithura Assembly segment began at the Ernakulam Government Girls’ High School while the training for officials in the Ernakulam segment is being held at the Maharaja’s College. In Kothamangalam, the programme started at MA College while in Kalamassery, it is being conducted in the Kalamassery Town Hall.
Training for poll officers in the Thrikkakara constituency began at SRV High School while for those in the Aluva constituency began at the Aluva Municipal Town Hall. Training for the officials for Piravom is scheduled to be held at Kochakkon auditorium in Muvattupuzha while for those in the Muvattupuzha segment is to be held at the Muvattupuzha Town Hall.The trainers explained to the officers the various procedures to be followed during the poll process.
