As per data released by the Election Commission of India on Thursday, the Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded the highest number of candidates for the polls to the Kerala Assembly to be held on May 16.
The BJP has fielded 98 candidates; the Congress follows with 87 candidates; and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), 85 candidates.
The Bahujan Samaj Party is in the fourth position with 74 candidates and the CPI has fielded 25 candidates.
The Indian Union Muslim League has 23 candidates in the fray and the Kerala Congress (M), 15 candidates. The Revolutionary Socialist Party and the Janata Dal (Secular) have fielded five candidates each.
There are 782 candidates in the category Independents and others. All together there are 1,203 candidates in the fray. There are 109 women candidates. The State has a total of 2,61,06,422 voters. The break-up is 1,35,08,693 women voters, 1,25,10,589 men voters, and 87,138 under the service voters category, and two voters under the category Others.
Poonjar constituency has the highest number of candidates in the fray; 17. The lowest number of candidates in the fray — four each shared by four constituencies, Payyanur, Nilambur, Kongad, and Tarur.
Twenty-seven constituencies have more than one woman in the fray.
Most voters
Voter wise, the largest constituency is Aranmula — 2,26,324 voters and the constituency with the least number of voters is Kozhikode South — 1,48,848. The largest constituency areawise is Konni. There will be 21,498 polling stations in the State under the general category and another 148 polling stations under the auxiliary category making it a total of 21,646 polling stations.
As per election commission data, party has 98 nominees, followed by Congress with 87
