In all, 194 candidates, 169 men and 25 women, are in the fray for the April 26 Lok Sabha elections in Kerala. There are 20 constituencies in the State
To compare, 227 candidates, which included 23 women, had contested the Lok Sabha polls in 2019.
The list of candidates was finalised on Monday after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations ended at 3 p.m.
Across the State, 10 candidates withdrew their nominations before the deadline ended, Chief Electoral Officer (Kerala) Sanjay Kaul said. With 14 candidates, Kottayam tops the list of constituencies in the number of candidates. Alathur has the lowest with five candidates. Kozhikode has 13 candidates while Kannur and Kollam have 12 each.
The Vadakara constituency has the highest number of women candidates. Of the ten candidates left in the fray, four are women.
Candidates withdrew their nominations in Thiruvananthapuram (1), Mavelikara (1), Idukki (1), Chalakudy (1), Thrissur (1), Palakkad (1), Malappuram (2), Wayanad (1), and Vadakara (1).
In all, 290 candidates had filed nomination papers . Election officials had rejected the papers filed by 86 candidates, whittling the number down to 204 after a scrutiny on April 5. The number has since come down to 194 on account of the withdrawals.
With the final list ready, the Election Commission of India has kicked off the process of allotment of election symbols to the candidates.
