Nominations open for Kerala polls

Former finance minister K M Mani, sports minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan and Bharatiya Janata Party president in Kerala, Kummanam Rajasekharan, were among some 30 candidates who filed their nominations for the May 16 elections yesterday.The nominations to all the 140 assembly constituencies would be open till April 29 and the last date for withdrawing them is May 2, after a scrutiny by election officials on April 30. Votes would be counted on May 19 and the new government is expected to be in place within a week.  Mani, who had to resign over bribe-taking allegations, was the first candidate file the nomination in his Pala constituency where he is contesting for a record 13th consecutive time.“This time, my mission is to give a fitting reply to my detractors raising unfounded allegations through the ballot,” Mani said after filing his nomination. “They targeted me as they thought I was behind closing their bars,” he said.In Vattiyoorkavu in the state capital, sitting legislator K Muraleedharan (Congress) and BJP president Rajasekharan filed their papers while in Kottayam, Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, who scraped through the last time with 711 votes, entered the fray for a second time. N Sakthan, Assembly speaker filed his nomination from Kattakkada.Other candidates who filed their nominations on the opening day are C H Kunhambu (CPI-M, Manjeshwar), M Rajagopal (CPI-M, Trikarpur), Chandran (JD (U), Vadakara), C P John (Communist Marxist Party, Kunnamkulam), Padmaja Venugopal (Congress, Thrissur), M M Hassan (Congress, Chadayamangalam), Rajmohan Unnithan (Congress, Kundara), Sooranad Rajasekharan (Congress, Chathannur), V Muraleedharan (BJP, Kazhakkoottam) and Kadakampally Surendran (CPI-M, Kazhakkoottam).