In a setback to the BJP in Kerala, the High Court said that it cannot intervene and rejected the petitions filed by three BJP candidates from Thalassery, Guruvayur and Devikulam constituencies challenging the rejection of their election nominations. The Court said that it cannot interfere in the decisions taken by the Returning Officers of the respective constituencies to reject the nomination papers for not adhere to requirements.
On Saturday, the Returning Officers had rejected nominations of N Haridas in Thalassery, Dhanalakshmi Marimuthu in Devikulam and Niveditha in Guruvaur for not having the signature of the BJP national president.
Meanwhile, just days after filing the nomination, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate from Manjeshwaram constituency K Sundara has withdrawn his nomination ahead of the Kerala Assembly polls to be held on April 6. Reportedly, he said that he will work for BJP state unit president K Surendran's victory. K Surendran is contesting from Konni and Manjeshwary.
Earlier, there were allegations that BJP was threatening K Sundara to withdraw his nomination. While addressing the media, he announced his decision to withdraw the nomination. During the 2016 elections, K Surendran lost by 89 votes, while K Sundara bagged 462 votes from Manjeshwaram. According to BJP, K Surendran lost the elections due to K Sundara and BJP was trying hard to remove the same threat this time.
The BSP leaders had lodged a complaint alleging that Sundara had been missing since Sunday and that the BJP threatened him. However, Sundara himself appeared before the police and said that there was no threat and following this, the police did not file a case.
