Election officials across the state had a busy day on Saturday with candidates queuing up to file their nomination papers for the upcoming Kerala assembly elections.
By 7.30pm on Saturday, 505 nomination papers had been submitted, for a total of 537 submitted so far. As Sunday is a holiday, candidates have only one day left, Monday (March 23), to submit their papers.
Prominent candidates from CPI-led Left Democratic Front (LDF), Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) filed their papers on Saturday. Ministers KN Balagopal, V. Sivankutty, Roshy Augustine, P. Rajeeve, PA Mohamed Riyas, K. Rajan, KB Ganesh Kumar, J. Chinchurani and Ramachandran Kadannapalli were among the LDF candidates who filed their papers on Saturday.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan filed the documents on Thursday. CPI(M) dissident G. Sudhakaran, who is contesting as an independent in Ambalappuzha, has also filed his papers.
Congress leaders Ramesh Chennithala and K Muraleedharan, senior IUML leader PK Kunhalikutty and CMP leader CP John were among the leaders from the UDF camp who submitted their papers.
BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar, former Union minister V Muraleedharan, former state presidents K Surendran and PK Krishnadas and Sobha Surendran were among the BJP candidates who filed papers on Saturday.
Entries will be reviewed on Tuesday (March 24). The deadline for withdrawing nominations is March 26.
Published – 21 March 2026 21:53 IST
