Scrutiny of nominations of key candidates in Thiruvananthapuram

Objections raised by rivals during scrutiny on Monday

The cell to monitor paid news in the print, electronic, and social media functioning at the District Collectorate in Thiruvananthapuram. Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar

The scrutiny of nominations filed by candidates, including the United Democratic Front’s (UDF) Shashi Tharoor and the Left Democratic Front’s Bennet Abraham, in the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency and that of the UDF candidate Bindu Krishna in the Attingal constituency, has been postponed to Tuesday after their rival candidates raised objections during the process on Monday.

An official statement from District Collector and Election Officer Biju Prabhakar said the scrutiny process on Monday, undertaken in the presence of Mr. Prabhakar, Sub-Collector S. Karthikeyan, and Election General Observers Liaquat Ali and Urmila Mishra, ended with the nominations of 38 candidates – 20 in Thiruvananthapuram and 18 in Attingal – being accepted.

Scrutiny and hearing on the nominations submitted by Mr. Tharoor, Mr. Abraham, Ms. Krishna, the CPI(M)’s dummy candidate N. Madhusoodanan Nair (Thiruvananthapuram), and CPI(M) candidate A. Sampath (Attingal) would be held from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Collectorate conference hall on Tuesday.

Among the nominations that were rejected on Monday was that of Radhakrishnan, the Bahujan Samaj Party’s dummy candidate in Thiruvananthapuram.

Talking to political party representatives later, Ms. Mishra said action would be taken if the name of anyone who created a situation wherein the public was not guaranteed a free and fair voting process was brought to the notice of the authorities.

Mr. Ali reminded the parties that rallies and public meetings required prior permission.

Mr. Prabhakar earlier inaugurated a photo exhibition at the VJT Hall aimed at creating awareness of the voting process.

The exhibition, which will be on from 9.30 a.m. to 8 p.m. till March 26, will have facilities for the physically challenged and the public to try their hand at using an electronic voting machine.

The exhibition, set up by the Union Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity and the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, will be held at Kazhakuttam, Attingal, and Kollam too.

The district election office, later in the day, published the numbers of members of the Anti-Defacement Squad, of which the nodal officer is B.K. Madhu (9446076273), while the other members are Sreekandan (9446031593), Vipin (9447492373), and John K. Stephen (94478-92977).

This article has been corrected for a factual error.