Thiruvananthapuram, March 23 As the deadline for filing nominations for the Kerala Assembly elections ended on Monday, several candidates, including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, are facing challenges posed by name-sakes in different constituencies.
Besides Vijayan, CPI(M) rebel leader G Sudhakaran, Trinamool Congress leader P V Anvar, Minister P Rajeev, CPI(M) MLA V K Prasanth, and Congress leaders K Muralidharan, Praveen Kumar K, and Thomas Unniyadan are also facing opponents with the same name.
In the Dharmadam constituency, where the Chief Minister is contesting, an independent candidate named Vijayan A M, a native of Chedichery in Kannur, has filed nomination.
CPI(M) rebel leader G Sudhakaran is also facing a namesake in Ambalapuzha, a person named Sudhakaran, who has filed nomination as an independent.
Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala, contesting against Minister P Prasad, is also facing a namesake.
Anvar, who is contesting from Beypore against Tourism Minister P A Muhammad Riyas, son-in-law of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, is facing as many as four namesakes.
Independent candidates Anwar Al Hassan and three others with the name Anvar have filed nominations from Beypore in Kozhikode, where P V Anvar is in the fray.
Besides Anvar, Riyas also has two namesakes — Mohammed Riyas T T and Muhammad Riyas P C.
In Kalamassery, an independent candidate named Rajeev has filed nomination papers in the constituency where Minister P Rajeev is contesting.
At Thiruvambady, where Muslim League leader C K Kasim is contesting, two other candidates with the same name have also filed nominations.
In Vattiyoorkavu, sitting MLA V K Prasanth faces a namesake in independent candidate Prasanth K.
In the same constituency, Congress leader K Muralidharan faces an independent opponent, Muralidharan P.
In Koyilandy, Kozhikode DCC president Praveen Kumar K is up against an independent candidate with the same name.
Similarly, Congress leader Thomas Unniyadan, contesting from Irinjalakuda, is also facing an independent candidate named Thomas.
After scrutiny and withdrawal of nominations, several such namesake candidates are likely to exit the contest.
